


Clutch

by SinisterScribe



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Baby Dragon, Drabbles, Dragon Queen!, Ever - Freeform, F/F, Magic, Regina gets messy, Regina is a dad, THE femslash OTP you heathens, all the DQ feels, an interesting take on a lovebite, anti-claustrophobia powers ACTIVATE, beginning of season 2 rewrite, cock - Freeform, crackficcery at its finest, cutest, did I mention the baby dragon?, dragon - Freeform, fire tattoos, i went there, kittling, magic dicks, my femslash OTP, oh and the Sheriffs Station, ooh...and Granny's wall..., oops there goes the library, quite a bit of property damage, wraiths get munched, yes - Freeform, yes you read that correctly, you heard about the baby dragon right?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-04-04 13:56:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 71,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4140300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinisterScribe/pseuds/SinisterScribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Dragon Queen drabbles which will be updated as and when I give a proverbial. </p><p>Some cutesy, some raunchy, some just a little bizarre and all of them with my own unique style thrown in for flair. </p><p>Starts at the beginning of season 2 and goes on from there. May be SLIGHT spoilers for some Enter the Dragon (mind OUT of the gutters please) stuff but I will be cherry picking which bits of canon I like and which I am going to just sigh heavily at before deleting it from my Mind Colosseum. </p><p>So...everything after 3A pretty much. </p><p>[For those of you not in the know, THAT was condescending, not just quirky]</p><p>Anyway, Dragon Queen fluff to be had.</p><p>ENJOY!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'M WORKING ON H+1/2 I SWEAR!
> 
> Honest, I'm about...halfway through a chapter with them and I even kind of know where it's going! Gaspeth! Progress. 
> 
> Anyway, don't hate me, this has been on my harddrive half finished for a while now and I want RID OF IT.
> 
> So here it is.

**Wraith Wrestling 101**

**_Beneath the Library…_ **

 

Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god…

Emma hid behind the pillar and tried not to just die of fright.

There was a _dragon_ down here with her.

A dragon.

Giant flying dinosaur death machine with built in flamethrower and a jonesing for apparently flambéing certain ‘Saviours’ because of some sort of bullshit family legacy feud.

Seriously though, between the two of them, her apparent parents had pissed off half of the Enchanted Whatsit and that half appeared to be ninety per cent _mass murderers!_

Not only that but her son was under a sleeping curse and the mother that had raised him, a woman with too much fucking class and self possession, had just announced that –yes- it was all real and Emma really did have to come down here into this dark cavernous kill box and fight a damn _dragon_ to get an EGG filled with TRUE LOVE and what-the-fuck-ever-else bullshittery but…but it would save Henry.

Regina had told her that this was the only way to save Henry and she had not been lying and Regina _did_ love Henry. She loved him with everything she had in her and Emma…even if she died down here getting the egg of True fucking Love and it saved Henry and he went back to Regina…she was going to do it.

She felt something _shift_ in the cavern.

Something huge.

It was so large that she felt its steps rather than heard them and the quiet was the truly terrifying part.

Something so huge, so vast, that she felt the air it displaced in even this cavernous space wash over her skin, moving with such a grace and silence wrapped in sinuous strength but _no sound_.

If Jurassic Park had taught her one thing it was that something that huge had to have a pounding gait that sounded like a countdown timer on her life…not this quiet.

Emma didn’t want to die in the quiet.

Working up her courage, ignoring the hammering of her heart in her chest and the sawing of the breaths in and out of her throat, Emma peered around the edge of the pillar.

The sword was ridiculously heavy in her hands. They were sweaty, clammy on the leather wrapped hilt.

Seriously though, a sword.

The fuck?

Something slithered over the ground and Emma gulped.

Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh _GOD_ , please let her live through this.

Henry needed her. He needed her to win this one.

Emma looked down at the sword in her hands.

She had to kill it. The sixty foot dragon that had nearly killed off the apparently incredible Prince Charming and _she_ Emma Swan, serial up fucker, loser, transient parent and all round waste of skin and time had to _kill it_.

Emma gulped hard.

She’d never killed anything. Not even tried. She ate hamburgers but that was so far removed from her she could be eating a very convincing veggie substitute and she’d never know the difference but the fact remained that she had to kill something –some _one_ \- to save her son and…and he’d hate that.

It was on the ceiling.

Emma’s head snapped up and she didn’t know how she knew but it was up. There.

She stared up into the dark and it MUST have been able to hear her heart because it was definitely all she could hear.

Green eyes opened.

“Oh god…”

Emma froze. Her muscles just locked. She couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t move, couldn’t blink, she could barely even breathe. She was _terrified_ and that word was not enough. Not nearly enough to describe the gut wrenching fear that ripped through her when those huge eyes opened –eyes as big as her skull- and a long head turned.

Her head turned, as long as Emma was tall, and bent backwards on a sinuous neck. Her body curled around and back on itself, front claws releasing the ceiling and coming around to rest on the ground with such a neat weightless quality that Emma could have quite easily –and deliriously happily- have believed that it was all a hallucination. One rear leg and then the other released the stalactites from which she hung until she coiled completely around and came to stand over Emma on all four legs, her long and spined tail swinging out behind her to twitch at the very end.

Her head was fully ten feet above Emma and she cocked it to the side, regarding the Saviour –who didn’t seem to be up to much right now never mind saving anyone – thoughtfully.

Emma’s sword clattered to the floor with a clang that made her jump.

Maleficent wasn’t an animal. She was sentient. She had thoughts and feelings. She wasn’t a sow to be led to slaughter. She might not look like one but she _was_ a person and Emma was not a murderer.

“My name is Emma Swan.” She held out her hands to show they were empty.

Maleficent frowned, a truly fearsome expression and Emma’s legs trembled with the need to run but she didn’t. She couldn’t. Henry needed her.

“My name is Emma Swan and I know that eating me right now may seem like a _really_ good idea but…it would cheapen you.” Emma tried to swallow past the lump of sand that seemed to have taken up residence in her throat and summoned something of a smile.

Maleficent cocked her head the other way and Emma tried again. She had to.

“There’s…my son is sick. He’s dying and there’s only one thing that can save him.”

A low rumble came from Maleficent that shook the ground beneath her and Emma’s stomach bucked. She was so scared she thought she was going to throw up but she didn’t. She couldn’t.

This was for Henry.

Emma let loose a slow breath and a calm stole over her. She kept her hands up and tried to appear non-threatening (whilst also not resembling a chicken nugget in need of ketchup). When she opened her eyes, her trembling had stopped and her voice was steady.

“There’s something in your neck, behind the frills on your head.”

Maleficent’s green mouth opened so wide Emma’s entire world became teeth and a blasting roar sent her hair flying and her clothes snapping but she didn’t back down.

“I’m here to take it out!” She bellowed. “It’s got to hurt, right? I want to take it out and take it with me, to save my son. It will break the curse that trapped you down here, you’ll be free again. Don’t you want that?!”

Maleficent’s jaws clashed closed and her glowing neon green eyes narrowed.

“I swear I’m telling the truth. Listen, I know you have a history with Regina and I know she went full on crazy for a while but this will end the curse. You will get. Out. Of this cave.” Emma waved at the glimmering steel she could see out the corner of her eye. “I’m unarmed, I haven’t tried to hurt you, all I want is the thing in your neck that has to be driving you nuts. I’ll take it away, it will save my son’s life and you’ll get out of here.”

Maleficent considered her a long moment and then rocked back to sit on her haunches. She frowned down at Emma and the scales over her neck and shoulders rose and fell, rattling like rain on a tin roof. The frills and spines around her head and down her neck twitched and shuffled and she grumbled deep in her throat.

“You hold all the cards.” Emma reminded her gently, incredibly aware of the time slipping through her fingers. “Please. _Please_ help me help my son. I just want to help my little boy.”

Maleficent looked away and there was a low sound in her throat which Emma took to be a thinking noise.

She waited in tense silence, assuming that pushing the dragon further would gain her nothing.

Finally Maleficent turned to her and swooped down, rocking down to lie in a sphinx position and lowering her head to the ground. She turned away from Emma and waited.

“Oh-oh-kay.” Emma shivered and edged closer to Maleficent.

She was _so_ huge.

Emma had been to Seaworld once. She had seem Shamu. The biggest animal she’d ever seen. Solid muscle and raw power with a brain that was suspected to have a depth of sentience and understanding of emotion that dwarfed anything that humans could understand. The strength and the power of him as he’d swum around that tiny tank, the battering the glass had taken with the sheer magnitude of the displacement of water hurled against it by the great whale’s passage…and he’d only been twenty feet.

Maleficent was easily three times as long.

Her huge glowing green eye rolled in its socket as Emma sidled closer.

The smell was not what she had expected.

Emma had expected something rank. Something dry and musty. Carrion and the fetid rot of living in her own squalor for near thirty years…but there was none of that.

She smelled instead of cinnamon and…cherries and something hot that Emma couldn’t put her finger on.

The heat belted from her in waves, the great sound of her breaths heaving in and out of her throat was vast, her sides rising and falling in time with those breaths.

The ground shook with the calm and steady beat of her heart.

Emma picked her way even closer and tried desperately to think non-prey thoughts. She found herself just behind Maleficent’s head, the rows of frills and spines there had to be peeled back and carefully searched between but she eventually saw it.

“I found it!” Emma lunged forward, her fear forgotten in the face of victory and she gripped both hands around the egg shaped thing and yanked.

Maleficent grunted and Emma froze.

“Sorry!” Emma froze. “I think it’s stuck. Your scales have kind of…grown around it.”

Maleficent groaned and it sounded frustrated.

“Maybe if –uh- I could guide you, you could pull it out yourself?”

Maleficent shifted and lifted one talon that could have easily spanned Emma’s entire torso and crushed her like a bug.

“O-oh-kay.” Emma forced her trembling to stop and took one of Maleficent’s…fingers in her hands and pulled it towards the dragon’s neck. She elbowed the frills out of the way and led Maleficent’s huge paw to the comparatively tiny egg shaped vessel.

Maleficent made a strange sound that could have been triumph when her claws scraped against the egg thing and she fiercely dug her talons into her own flesh and hauled the whole thing and a goodly portion of scales out of her neck along with the True Love egg thingamie.

Scales and blood pattered sizzling hot onto the dusty stone floor of the cavern and Maleficent grunted, dropping the egg thing into Emma’s hands.

“Thank you.” Emma breathed and she looked up at Maleficent. She gulped, her throat raw and her eyes burning with unshed tears. “Thank you. I’ll break the curse. I’ll get you out of here. I promise.”

Maleficent cocked her head but didn’t appear to believe Emma in any great way. She dipped her chin and gave a deliberate blink that may have been assent, agreement or just a goodbye.

“Thank you.” Emma nodded again, clutching the egg to her chest and she spun away, running across the cavern floor to the elevator, signalling Regina to pull her to the top.

The last thing she saw of Maleficent was the dragon’s huge green eyes watching her as the elevator doors closed and –as the car rose up through the floors- a huge desperate wail crying out across the cavern.

Emma clutched the egg tightly to her chest and vowed –no matter what happened- she’d pay the dragon back for giving her the chance to save Henry.

The kid was going to have to do some serious editing of his book because _that_ had been no villain.

But that was not to be.

Emma got to the top of the shaft and Regina was bound and gagged. Gold took the egg and any hope they had of getting the True Love to Henry and Regina seemed to be in shock.

“Regina, you okay?” Emma hauled the tape from over Regina’s mouth but the other woman didn’t even seem to notice. “Regina!”

“You killed her.”

“What?”

“Maleficent’s…” Regina seemed transfixed with the blood that covered Emma’s hands and arms, the scales stuck with yet more blood to her pants.

She shook her head sharply, coming back to herself.

“We need to get to Henry.” Regina hurled herself from the chair she had been bound in and staggered from the library. “I need to see my son.”

But then Henry died and then he wasn’t because of _Emma’s_ true love and then there was the whole curse breaking/magic returning/parents _finding_ each other and all hell breaking loose with angry mobs headed for Regina’s house.

Then arrests, for her own sake, and getting locked in the cells to keep Regina from being harmed.

Fat lot of good that did.

Gold and enchanted medallion thingies because why the fuck not?

And Regina giving up.

“Regina, seriously, any suggestions?” Emma thumped her fist against the bars of her cell and Regina slowly turned to see her.

The symbol burned into her palm still smoked a little but she barely seemed to notice. Her eyes landed on Henry for a long moment and then she finally seemed to understand that she’d been asked a question. She shook her head.

“No.” She walked to the cot in the cell like she was a hundred years old and slowly sat.

“Mom?” Henry’s voice quavered a little and she turned her face away from him and looked intently at the cell wall.

Emma could see from where she stood that a single tear tracked down Regina’s face.

“There’s nothing.” Regina’s voice sounded a little stronger but she still wouldn’t look at Henry. “There isn’t a single creature in this world that can fight a wraith. Not one.”

“But…” Henry gripped the bars of the cell and twisted to look up at Emma who felt as shocked as he looked.

Regina used that moment of distraction to swat the tears from her face and turned to look at Emma, appearing to be…numb.

“You should get him out of here. It will be back soon. I don’t want him caught in the crossfire.”

“Regina…” Snow began but Regina shot to her feet with a sudden fire in her eyes and gritted fiercely from behind clenched teeth.

“My son should not see this!”

Shouldn’t see her die, she meant. Shouldn’t see her soul get sucked out.

“Mary Margaret,” Snow turned to her friend (she still couldn’t think of her as her mother), “you should get Henry somewhere safe.”

Henry fought, he wanted to stay, but Mary Margaret finally convinced him to leave and he only did when he saw his mom fold down to sit on the cot again and her head fall forward into her hands.

She’d given up.

Henry’s throat closed up and he went numb.

What had he done?

He let himself be led away and Emma approached the bars of the cell again.

“Regina.” She gripped the bars. “Regina, look at me.”

Regina slowly lifted her head and looked up at Emma.

“What, Saviour?” There was no venom in it, just acceptance.

“Damn it, don’t you dare!” Emma hissed. “Don’t you dare give up! Don’t you dare abandon Henry! I did it and he’s heartbroken because of it! You chose him! You wanted him! He needs that now!”

“THERE’S NOTHING LEFT!” Regina roared, hurling herself to her feet. “Don’t you get it?! I’ve no more tricks! No more plots. Nothing.” Regina’s voice sank to a whisper and she shook her head.

“I have nothing.”

“You have Henry.”

“I have a _cell_.” Regina snarled, the last of her fight flaring for a brief instant in her eyes. “A squalid box to die in. If not that then a mob will come for my head. If not that then the wraith and if not that then something _else_. This is it. You _cannot_ save me and you were never supposed to. This was always how it was going to end. Always.”

“There’s got to be something!” Emma slammed her hand against the bars. “Nothing is unbeatable! Henry taught me that. He learned it from you. You have to know _something_.”

“Nothing human can defeat a wraith.” Regina shook her head and turned away.

She was so tired of fighting.

Maybe it was time for her to go.

She had lost so much, losing her life seemed like a paltry thing in comparison. Wouldn’t it be nice to have peace? Finally? To finally rest?

Suddenly it all seemed so funny and she laughed.

“Nothing human can defeat a wraith and I brought us to a world without magic. There are only humans here.” She laughed again. She sobered after a long moment and stared down at the cell floor.

A quiet stole over her and she felt…nothing.

Or perhaps she felt everything and just couldn’t sort one emotion from the other anymore.

Either way, it hardly mattered.

“You should go, Miss Swan. There is no one here for you to save.”

She didn’t look at the Saviour as she spoke. She didn’t want to see the pity in her eyes. She didn’t want to see that dumb determination that would send her off on a pointless holy quest to save someone that had been past saving long ago.

“You’re giving up.” Emma’s voice was quiet but the accusation was a steely jab. “ _You._ You’re giving up?”

“There is no giving up, only acceptance.” Regina looked down at the symbol burned into her palm, tracing the painful lines with her finger. “I must admit, I did always think it would be my mother that would destroy me. Her or Snow. Though this is…fitting.”

“Fitting?!” Emma slammed her hand against the bars again. “What the hell are you talking about?! Henry needs you!”

“Henry has you.” Regina’s voice was quiet still but it cut through Emma’s arguments ruthlessly. “You and the rest of his real family.”

“You’re his family too. I know you’re seven different kinds of fucked up but so was I back in the day and you stepped in when I couldn’t man up and look after Henry like you could. I will owe you forever for that and I’m gonna start by doing the same thing for you as you did for me but you CANNOT give up, Regina!” Emma gulped hard and she couldn’t say why it was so hard for her to watch Regina fall apart.

Well, she could actually. Maybe it was selfish, but Regina had _always_ been hostile to Emma. She’d always been rude and standoffish and a scheisty bitch but it had been _honest_. It had been real. She’d been the only one in this whole damn town that had been the same before the curse as she was now and she was a touchstone that Emma didn’t think she could go without. Not right now, not since her family had suddenly sprung out of nowhere. She’d just been learning to cope with Henry and that had been fine because Regina was there to pick up the slack but Emma knew that she –and Henry- needed someone there that _knew_ how to do that whole mothering thing. Emma was pretty brand fucking new at it and Mary Margaret could hardly be trusted, she’d shoved Emma through a portal and relied on her to save her entire fucking country whilst she was still sticky from the womb!

Though that hardly mattered now, what mattered now was that Regina was giving up and going to wait meekly for her death to come for her. She wasn’t even going to try and fight it.

So Emma was going to have to do it for her.

“The bars are iron, right?”

Regina lifted her head on a frown and turned to look at Emma.

“What?”

“These bars, they’re iron, will that stop it?”

“Stop what?”

“I read that in a book!” Emma clung to the bars. “Iron does screwy things to magic in some faerie tales. Does it do it to yours? I mean, in your world, in my- -you know what I mean! Will the iron keep the wraith away?!”

“How am I supposed to know?” Regina frowned at her and Emma snarled under her breath.

“Fine. Be useless.” Emma dug into her belt and unclipped her gun holster, she held it out to Regina through the bars and then tossed it onto the end of the cot when Regina just blinked at her. “I’m going for help. Shoot anything that looks…wraith-y.”

Regina arched an eyebrow, finally something of that daunting self-possession coming back into her gaze.

“Don’t die.” Emma pointed at her, giving an order.

Then again, knowing Regina, she’d probably just off herself out of spite.

Emma didn’t hang around to find out. She turned, sprinting for the Sheriff’s office and heading for the one place that did _not_ have a human inhabitant.

She told herself it was crazy and herself replied that she was fully aware of that fact but the whole damn town was crazy so maybe the sane stuff didn’t work anymore.

Emma opened the library doors with a judicious application of foot to lock and scrambled the mirror mural out of the way to find the steampunk blinky dial control panel on the other side. She fidgeted a moment, how had Regina…?

There!

Emma jumped into the elevator and hoped that Maleficent was willing to listen to reason because if she wasn’t then Emma was going to be stuck down there for however long it took for the next Saviour to turn up.

The ride down seemed to take forever and Emma bounced impatiently on her toes. She bolted out of the elevator, her shoulder getting caught on the doors because she just couldn’t wait for them to open and she staggered out into the cavern, the only light coming from the open elevator doors.

“Maleficent!”

Emma’s voice bounced back on her again and again. She scanned the cavern and a horrible thought occurred to her.

Maleficent’s cry when she had left the last time, all that blood that had poured from her neck as she had yanked the True Love Egg Thinagmy from her flesh, had that been more serious than she had let on? Emma had assumed it was just a flesh wound but what if it wasn’t? Was it that easy to kill a dragon?

“ _MALEFICENT!”_

There was a sudden rush, a gust of air and a pounding of silent steps and Maleficent was _there._

“I told you I’d come back.” Emma managed something of a smile. “We need to figure out a way to get you out of here. Is there a tunnel or something?”

Maleficent snorted smoke and frowned at Emma.

“Now that you mention it, it does seem a little weird that you would just stay down here if there was a tunnel big enough for you to get out of.”

Maleficent rocked down into a sphinx position and rumbled a low and displeased sound at the inadequacy of her rescuer.

“Okay, don’t give me that look! It’s been a bit of a fucking DAY and I need your help!”

Maleficent’s head cocked to the side and she arched one scaly brow.

“Regina’s in trouble.” Emma started and swallowed hard, she held up her hands when Maleficent’s eyes went wide. “I know! I know that you guys aren’t exactly copacetic but…but…there’s this wraith and she’s been marked. It’s coming for her and she says nothing human can stop it and you’re the only inhuman person that I know!”

Maleficent’s frown deepened and she rose to her four legs, towering over Emma.

“So we have to get you out of here and you have to fight this wraith or eat it or whatever or it’s going to suck out Regina’s soul and- -ack!”

Emma was cut off violently when Maleficent suddenly surged forward and snatched her up in one great talon. Emma squeaked when she thought This Was It but Maleficent apparently had no desire to crush her. She clutched Emma close to her chest, rearing up on her hind legs and fisted her other talon in the metal of the elevator carriage.

Emma clapped her hands over her ears when the entire boxy thing was crumpled like a box of eggs with a shriek of metal and a snap of steel cables. Maleficent hauled the carriage out of the shaft without even a grunt of effort and then forced herself through the gap.

Emma was screaming, she was pretty sure she was screaming anyway, it was difficult to tell over all the noise that Maleficent was making. She snarled with the effort of cramming her huge body into the elevator shaft. Solid rock broke away in huge chunks and shattered against Maleficent’s tremendous strength. She tore away steel cables with great snaps of her jaws and shakes of her head. She buckled support beams and clawed her way up the shaft.

Emma just huddled against Maleficent’s chest and hoped she didn’t get brained by a stray brick or something. She could hear the thunderous pound of Maleficent’s heart, the great bellowing sound of her straining lungs as she forced the earth itself to bend back from her and let her pass.

Jesus Christ, Maleficent must _really_ want out.

Or really want to kill Regina herself.

Either way, Emma would deal with the fallout later.

If she survived this.

Maleficent tore out of the tunnel and into the library proper. She gave a deafening roaring scream when she found yet more walls around her. Those were lesser walls though and no barrier to an enraged dragon. She tucked her chin, levelling her horns at the wall of the library and lunged forward.

Bricks and mortar exploded outwards, the clock tower cracked, the bells and cogs within thrumming with the vibrations. Fissures split through the stone, the roof crackled like breaking ice and a terrible shiver rent the whole building.

Maleficent roared again, shaking the bricks and walls from her great shoulders like a dog would shed water from its coat. She spread her wings, shoving one and then the other out to their full extension to toss away yet more of the library. The bell tolled in the tower as it crackled and crumpled on one side.

With another great heave, the dragon forged free of her prison.

And the library fell.

The clock tower buckled, purple magic still pent up within billowing free alongside the dust and mortar pulverised by a dragon’s strength. It seemed to take forever to fall but the whole thing just glanced off Maleficent as she shook herself free of the wreckage she had caused.

Like she even cared, she had things to do.

People were screaming, she didn’t care about that either.

She tilted her head back, nostrils flaring, drinking in the scents of this drab little world. She sniffed deeply, her lungs expanding fully in her chest and…there!

Maleficent dropped Emma almost gently on the ground and took off at a gallop towards the Sheriff Station.

“Hey!” Emma scrambled and lunged to her feet, giving chase. “Wait for me!”

Grumpy had seen the whole thing.

The dragon had come crashing out of the library, trashing the whole building and then it had taken off at a dead run, the Saviour hot on its heels.

Well, if he’d ever doubted the Legend of Emma Swan, her running off a sixty foot dragon put that to rest.

Grumpy endeavoured to behave in the future lest he garner her attention.

 

**_In the Cells…_ **

 

Regina’s head snapped up when she heard that roar.

She knew that voice.

“Mal…” She shot to her feet.

It wasn’t possible. Emma had killed her. She had slain her so that she could gain the vessel containing her parent’s true love to save Henry and…had she?

Swan was many things but she was no killer.

But the blood…

That hardly mattered.

Mal was here. She was here in her dragon form and she knew nothing of the world of Storybrooke. She didn’t know about guns. She didn’t know that a high powered rifle could probably pierce her skin. She didn’t know that a truck could break her legs if it crashed into her and she certainly didn’t know that power lines could fry her if she ran headlong into them.

Regina cast about herself wildly and snatched the gun up from the end of the cot.

She didn’t even unholster it. Bad idea. She’d either end up shooting herself in the foot or the ricochet would get her or _something_ but she doubted a gun was going to help her.

“Why didn’t you leave me the _keys_ , Swan?!” Regina grasped the bars of the cell door and threw her weight against them.

Nothing. Not even a tremor.

Magic, she needed her magic.

It didn’t matter that it wasn’t working. It didn’t matter that she didn’t seem to have any, that she must have used it all up casting the curse, she _had_ to protect Mal. She had done enough to her, she would NOT let her be hurt again.

“Come on.” Regina clapped her hand over the lock and focussed every iota of her attention on it. “Come on, you stupid steel bit of nonsense. _Freeze_.”

Regina’s fingers clawed and she turned her focus inward. There was magic there. She _knew_ there was. She had lived in this town for twenty eight years and she hadn’t aged a day she had to be more magic than flesh and bone at this point. She would NOT be beaten by a _cage._

Steam began to rise from the lock and Regina grinned a sharp baring of her teeth.

“Thaaat’s it.” She redoubled her efforts and steam billowed from the lock now as she drew the heat from it. Frost began to form over the metal and it creaked with a low groan.

She kept at it. Aware of a roaring dragon somewhere in the town. Calling out. Looking for Regina.

Whether to kill her or not, that hardly mattered, there was a queue and she’d have to take a number, but Regina would at least ensure that she knew what to stay away from before she ate Regina.

The lock creaked and groaned further, the frost spreading up over the bars surrounding it and Regina spun away, peeling her hand from the blocky lock. She snatched up the gun again and this time it was to bludgeon it down onto the weakened and brittle lock.

Sparks flew and Regina’s shoulder wrenched when she poured all of her strength into every blow. She hammered on the lock and then wrapped her hand around the jagged edges.

“Hot.” She willed it. “Heat UP, you useless…”

It happened faster this time, the metal grew warmer in her palm, beginning to steam as the frost melted away. Beginning to glow.

“Cold. Get colder. _Colder._ ” It had been decades since she’d had to resort to verbal commands and physical contact for her magic to obey her but she’d launch into a rendition of fucking Flashdance complete with thirty backup dancers if it meant she could get out of this cell.

The metal groaned and squealed as the temperature went from dull red hot to a blue grey cold rimed in frost again.

Regina hammered on it with the butt of the pistol again and laughed when the metal crumbled like poorly cured clay under the force of the pistol-whipping Regina subjected it to.

“Hah!” Regina laughed and shouldered the door open without a moment’s hesitation and burst out into the bullpen of the station.

Right into the waiting claws of the wraith.

Regina choked as its massive hand wrapped completely around her head and neck and it hurled her back into the cell to smash into the wall. She tumbled to the floor, bruised and stunned but still alive.

Somewhere out there, Mal _screamed_.

Regina coughed, getting a hand under her body, her head ringing. Her vision popped in and out of focus and then the wraith swam into view over her.

Its amorphous body hovered over her. Claws flexing, its tattered skin trailing in ratty tails from it. Dull red eyes glowed from deep within its hood and Regina worked her knees beneath herself.

She would not die here. Not like this.

The floor was cold beneath her and that seemed grounding. She would not die on her knees. Not a victim.

Never again a victim.

Regina sagged back against the wall and pushed with her legs, sliding up it so she stood tall once more. She levered herself away, standing under her own power and swallowed hard. Her voice was a low rasp when she spoke.

“That all you got?”

The wraith hissed, lunging for her and Regina hurled up her hand, the same hand that Rumple had burned the sygil into. Fire burst from every ancient line of it. Not much, not nearly enough, but she _burned_ it.

In whatever small way, it was going to have to work for her soul.

It shrieked, falling away from her in a mad tumble. Twirling over its own tail, slinking around, flanking her, and Regina swung wildly. Her magic was done, she knew that, but it wasn’t in her not to fight.

Her dull acceptance was gone, the maudlin way she had taken to her inevitable death burned away by the fire.

So she was to die, so what? She’d not go quietly into the night.

Her fist smacked into the thing’s eye and it shrieked again but its strength was far greater than her own. It batted her away like a cat with a mouse and she slammed into the bars of the cell. Her head clattered against the metal and she saw stars. Sharp claws closed around her throat and stinking black teeth gaped in front of her. There was a great suck of air and it _inhaled_. 

Regina choked, her hands clapping down onto its fetid wrist and clawing wildly when it began to drink her in. Sucking deeply from the very forces that made up her life, her soul. It devoured everything that was her and she felt the energy being ripped from every cell of her body one at a time.

She’d have screamed if she could. It hurt _so much_. There were no words for the agony that followed. The world veiled in black and she thought she might mercifully lose consciousness but that was not to be. It was simply sucking away the energy required for her eyes to function.

Oh no, she was to be fully aware of everything that was happening to her right until the very end.

Only not quite.

There was a tremendous sound and light spilled down in a torrent that hammered the wraith like a physical blow. It shrieked, cringing away from the light and releasing Regina.

She crumpled to the floor, slumping like a ragdoll and she was only very dimly aware of what was going on around her.

The roof.

The entire roof of the Sheriff’s Station was gone. A huge reptilian head loomed into view, green mouth gaping wide and a deafening roar challenged the wraith which was fully three times the size it had been before it had fed from Regina.

Huh, looked like she did have a fair bit of power left in her.

At least she had.

Mal’s neck arched down, her jaws snapping within an inch of the wraith as it madly jinked to the side. She snapped again and again, her jaws crashing together like mountains cracking. She lunged over the wall of the Station and added her talons to the mix as the wraith continued to frantically dodge her.

It was afraid. Afraid of a dragon.

Then again, considering the screams coming out of Mal and all those teeth and claws zinging through the air, who wouldn’t be afraid?

Mal was confined by the steel bars of the cell even if she had torn the roof away and also not wanting to trample Regina who just needed a second. She’d get up in a minute, honestly.

The wraith was gone.

Maleficent had jerked back to avoid catching Regina with her claws and it had given the wraith the chance it needed to get out of dodge. It had swooped past Mal and into the bright afternoon sun and that was its last mistake.

Mal _roared_.

Fire spewed from her parted jaws and caught the wraith in the ragged shroud that hung over it.

The wraith squealed and shrieked and Mal pounced on it. She reared up on her hindlegs, tail swinging out for balance and wings booming wide, and snatched hold of it with both front talons. She gripped it tightly, her claws biting deep, and dragged it within the reach of her jaws. She tore into it with savage wrenching shakes of her head. Her teeth ruptured the very fabric of the wraith and she dragged it down to the ground.

It screamed and clawed, far from helpless. Its claws tore into her face and neck, ripping into the frills that crowned Mal’s head behind her horns and trying to haul the spines there free.

Mal hissed and arched her back, the spines and frills went ramrod straight and sliced into the wraith’s hands causing it to fall back with a wail. It scrambled frantically, trying to get away, but Mal was having none of that.

She had one talon fisted in its body, tearing and ripping with her fangs and pulling at the holes she made with her free talon. Her tail lashed, cracking back and forth across the street, smashing into buildings, crumbling brick and pulverising windows.

The wraith’s struggles began to slow and Mal gave one massive wrench of her head, shaking from side to side and rearing back. She tore something free and the wraith bucked and screamed, shrivelling in on itself, shrinking into nothing.

Mal snorted green smoke in satisfaction and then hurried back to the station.  She reared up, hooking her talons over the ragged top of the wall that had so recently been relieved of its roof. Black ichor streamed from her mouth, pattering over the floor and revealing a silvery light held so gently between her jaws.

“Regina.” Emma knelt over Regina’s crumpled form and Mal made a sound far too like a whimper for her own comfort. “Regina, wake up!”

Regina lolled unconscious in the Saviour’s arms, her head fallen back and her skin far too pale.

Mal crooned a soft sound and Emma’s head snapped up. She threw her hand up and put herself between Mal and Regina.

“Don’t eat her!”

Mal frowned and cocked her head to the side.

Really?

“This,” Emma said slowly after a moment, “seems really stupid now that I think on it.”

Mal slowly leaned down, clambering over the station wall so her front legs could rest on the floor and her neck could arch inside the top of the cell.

The silvery something held in her mouth now glowed neon bright and turned Emma’s hair white and her lips black in its eerie light. Black ichor continued to leak from it until there was nothing left but the strangely gelatinous and somehow smoky form held in Mal’s teeth.

Mal nudged Emma out of the way with her snout and then opened her mouth, tumbling the smoky light out of her mouth and onto Regina. She watched intently as it seemed to suffuse outwards and sink into Regina.

“Was that…?” Emma stared and then looked up at Mal. “Was that her soul?”

Mal was intently watching Regina but she nodded absently.

She could hear the tiny sorceress breathing, her heart thudding sluggishly and Mal made a low sound when there was no improvement. She nudged at Regina, half rolling her onto her side and then whined when she flopped insensate onto her back again.

Opening her mouth, Mal gave a great huff of magic over Regina’s body and that too sank beneath her skin but still…

“Regina,” Emma shook her, “Regina, you gotta wake up. Maleficent’s here. She wants you to wake up now.” Emma leaned over Regina and took her face in her hands, patting her cheek harshly.

Mal turned suddenly to Emma and snuffed a deep breath onto her that somehow perfectly translated into ‘wait here’.

Then she was gone.

She lunged away, wings sweeping wide and vaulting into the sky.

Emma watched her go and dimly heard the screams of the townspeople ducking away from the huge dragon.

The Saviour was stunned for a moment, left in the pool of light streaming in through the ragged hole where the roof of the Sheriff’s Station had been. Ripped off by a dragon.

A dragon.

Emma looked down at Regina and then cursed herself.

“God _damn it_ , Emma!” She snapped at herself. “One fucking dragon turns up and you fall apart!”

She laid Regina down on the floor and bent over her, checking for signs of life. She bent so that she could listen for breathing, her fingers going to Regina’s pulse point on her neck.

Her pulse was thready and her breathing shallow, but it was there.

Emma shrugged her jacket off, wriggling frantically out of it, and bundled it around Regina. Then she hauled her up off the floor again and into her arms. She yanked a blanket down off the ruined cot –well the rags that had formerly been a blanket- and drew that about Regina too.

Warm, she had to keep her warm, keep her from going into shock.

If that was a thing you could do after nearly being eaten by a wraith…

Emma scowled, it had existed for all of five minutes and she hated magic already.

Fumbling in her pocket, Emma yanked out her cell and struggled to unlock it. She punched in 911 and clapped to her ear, swearing fluently and at length when the busy signal was all she got.

Not surprising really. The magic must have wreaked havoc with just about everything and the phones would have been ringing off the hook here had the phone lines still been working at any rate.

Emma tossed her phone away in disgust and went back to holding Regina, rubbing at her arms to try and warm her.

“You’re not allowed to die. Not now. No way.” Emma was unaware that she was rocking back and forth but it had been a hell of a day for her and she needed some kind of comforting even if it was in the form of pretending that she was being useful to an unconscious woman. “You don’t get to set off this shit storm and just leave me to deal with it. No way.” 

Emma kept rocking back and forth and continued to try and not have a mental breakdown.

“Seriously though, if you’re the only person here that’s known what was going on since I got to this Groundhog Day town then you gotta wake up because you’re the only one I can predict and I _really_ need someone that’s some shape of normal in my life right now.” Emma sniffed hard, her eyes burning and it did seem like an excellent idea to just cry like a baby but she didn’t really have _time_ for that right now. “The kid doesn’t count. He’s always been a bit…bizarre. I mean, I love him for it and all –you do too- but…it’s a wrinkle I can do without right now and I really need you to not be dead so I have backup and someone that can translate whenever he does something fucked up that I just don’t get.”

Emma fell silent for a long moment and then was saved from further babbling when a shadow fell over her.

Emma tensed, whipping her head up and ready to do… _something_ to help Regina should the wraith be back for more but found that was not the case. It was only Mal.

 _Only_ the mythical dragon.

Emma huffed out a long breath and scowled at herself.

Well, at least the mad urge to sit in a corner and suffer a fit of the screaming ab-dabs had passed and she could move back to being the acerbic sidekick to the…Evil Queen.

Well, Evil Queen couldn’t be that much different from Mayor.

In fact, Emma was pretty sure that politicians tended to be worse.

Emma’s little introspection was cut off when she was suddenly eye to nostril with the dragon again.

“Hullo.” Emma gulped hard.

No matter how many times she saw her, Emma just couldn’t get over the _size_ of Maleficent.

Or those teeth.

Or the glow of fire deep in those nostrils of hers.

Maleficent grunted, nudging carefully closer to Emma and butting her with the tip of her muzzle. She was carrying something in her mouth again. Something rounded and scaly and…brown. Maleficent grunted again and tilted her head to the side, crooning a low sound.

Take this.

“Oh.” Emma leaned back and accepted the…egg from Maleficent. “What a lovely gift.” Emma murmured, not sure what was going on but she cradled the egg the size of a beach ball in her arms, leaning back so there was room for both egg and Regina. Though she was quickly relieved of Regina.

“Hey!” Emma juggled the egg and tried to grasp for Regina but Maleficent already had her limp form in her mouth and was lifting her away from Emma.

Maleficent’s head swooped up and away, carrying Regina but never harming her, and disappearing from sight. She was back a bare moment later and took the egg back from Emma.

Emma was stunned for a moment and then scrambled to her feet. She picked her way over the rubble that remained of the roof and hurried out of the bullpen and into the hallway. She burst out of the Station and onto the street in time to see…well, she didn’t know what.

Maleficent had lain Regina out on the street, flat on her back, with the egg propped on top of her stomach. Maleficent’s nose rested on the other side of the egg and she huffed out great steaming plumes of magic. With every breath, billowing clouds of green sparked with silvery purple washed over Regina and the egg both.

Again and again and again.

Until it worked.

Regina gasped, eyes flying wide, and sat up all in the same movement. She panted hard, her skin painted with green magic and reflexively caught the egg when it tumbled into her lap.

“Mal.” She gasped, practically nose to nose with the dragon and –incredibly- she smiled.

Lifting a tentative hand, she rested it on Maleficent’s nose, between her nostrils. The dragon smiled in return, the barest curling of her lips, and dipped her head so that she leaned into Regina’s palm more fully.

“So-o…not trying to kill one another?” Emma hesitated to interrupt the moment but she really didn’t have any reference for a situation like this.

She certainly didn’t want to try and arrest a dragon...

“You’re alive.” Regina pressed her lips together to hold back the sob even though her eyes shone. “She didn’t kill you.”

Maleficent snorted. In an ‘as if that would ever happen’ manner.

Emma had been unaware that a snort or a grunt could ever convey so much, but there it was.

“I didn’t want to send her, I swear I didn’t but I didn’t know of anything else that could save Henry and we parted on such…I’m sorry.” Regina folded forward, her forehead resting against Maleficent’s snout. “I am _so_ sorry. I…”

Regina jerked when a crack sounded between them and she leaned back, looking down at the thing in her lap and going VERY still when she realised what she was holding.

“Uhm…” Regina blinked, completely stunned, and Maleficent smirked again.

Regina was silent for a long moment, processing, then slowly looked up at Maleficent.

“This is…?”

Maleficent nodded enthusiastically and Regina looked down at the egg when something crackled again.

“Oh.” Regina’s voice was very small. Her eyes went hugely wide when the egg crackled again.

Whatever was inside wanted _out_ but the egg was too tough. It scraped and scrambled on the inside and Regina shook herself out of her shock. She could gibber like a loon later but right now…she needed to help.

Her hands lifted and she scraped at the egg with her nails, trying to break through. Trying to help the brand new creature inside.

Maleficent snorted and shook her head sharply. She huffed out another plume of magic over Regina and the egg both and nodded.

Regina very quickly put two and two together and stared down at the egg. Her magic was all but null, what she’d had left she’d thrown against the wraith and now…no. She’d found some for the wraith, she’d find some again.

Regina closed her eyes and concentrated. She searched inside herself, deep down inside, and scrambled for something. For anything. A spark. An ember. A smouldering ruin of her magic, she didn’t care, so long as there was _something_.

There!

Regina’s eyes snapped open, shining with a lurid purple, and she exhaled what remained of the magic she could muster.

All of it. Every piece.

She’d give it all if it meant her child could live.

As soon as the plume of purple sparked with silver left her lips, Maleficent breathed more magic into the egg too and it gave what had slept inside for the last twenty eight years the strength to break free.

The egg cracked, a blunted little snout thrust free and the dragon hatchling scrambled into the world.

Emma’s eyes bugged wide and her mouth actually dropped open when she witnessed the birth of a dragon.

It was messy, births tended to be, but nobody really paid that much mind.

Clear –well- gunk splattered over Regina as the hatchling tore free of its egg and tumbled into Regina’s body. It scrambled and mewled, wings flailing, claws clutching and shaking itself to try and rid itself of the fluids that had encased it within the egg. Huge black eyes opened, blinking rapidly, and it looked up at Regina.

It gave a little sound ‘ _mreep!’_ and tried to climb Regina like a tree, reaching up towards her face and licking at her chin. Regina folded forward, ducking her head so that her nose could rest against the baby’s and smiling a dazzling smile when the dragon _mreep_ ’d again and nipped a soft little kiss on her nose.

Maleficent gave a low crooning rumble and the hatchling twisted, calling to Maleficent too and struggling to reach the other dragon’s face to touch noses with her as she had done Regina.

Regina helped, gently scooping up the baby and holding her so she could butt her nose against Maleficent’s and lick and bite at her too.

Emma blinked, clipping her mouth closed when she realised what she was seeing.

The little beastie was imprinting on its…parents.

Regina was a dad.

Emma snorted a laugh suddenly and it broke the moment between parents and child.

“Sorry.” Emma held up her hands and tensed when black smoke billowed around Maleficent.

It boiled over her entire body, clouding thickly and –when it cleared- Maleficent stood on the street in her human form.

Her very tall, very beautiful, very _naked_ form.

“Oh, so…that’s a thing.” Emma fell back a step and nodded. She waved a thumb behind herself, suddenly deciding that she wasn’t needed for this. “I’m just gonna…y’know, a shirt or something.”

Emma turned away and hurried back into the Station.

She’d picked a hell of a day to quit drinking.

Oh, wait, she hadn’t.

As soon as this was all over. She was getting DRUNK.

“Hello, little one.” Maleficent, satisfied that Emma had been chased off, turned back to her child and her mate.

Well, the second part wasn’t official yet but it was only a matter of time.

Maleficent sank down on her heels and smiled for her hatchling. She touched noses with her again.

The baby frowned, her head rocking back on her neck when her mother was suddenly a completely different shape, but that was a familiar touch despite the different skin. So the confusion melted away to a childish delight and the baby gave another little _mreep!_ of approval.

“She is beautiful.” Mal reached up with one hand and smoothed her fingers over the baby soft scales of the hatchling’s hide. “She says her name is Lilith. We can call her Lily.”

“We?” Regina was staring up at her, still clutching Lily to her chest. She looked so adorably worried.

“Yes. We.” Mal nodded. “She is _our_ daughter, after all.”

“Yes.” Regina looked down at Lily and couldn’t help but smile at her baby as she tilted her head right back so her head thumped against Regina’s chest and she could look up at her human mother with another adorable little squeak. “She’s beautiful.”

“Comes from good stock.” Mal murmured, lifting her hand from Lily’s skinny little chest to trace her claws over Regina’s high cheekbone. “I have _missed you_ , Gina.”

“How can you say that?” Regina jerked back. She looked so ashamed. “I imprisoned you. Locked you in a dungeon for nearly thirty years. I went mad, I cast the Dark Curse, I- -! I pushed you away. I did such horrible things.”

“I am over three thousand years old, sweet. Twenty eight years, I barely felt them. In truth, I slept for most of it. Curled around her. Keeping her safe for you. Until you were…you again.”

“I’m not that little girl that came to your castle with barely enough fire to light a hearth.”

“No. You are not.” Mal grinned. “You are so much more.”

“And so much less.” Regina’s voice was hoarse but she smiled when Lily squeaked at her again. “She’s really mine?”

“Truly ours.” Mal nodded and grumbled in annoyance when Emma reappeared.

“Look at me and all my spare clothes!” Emma slithered to a halt beside them. “These should fit.” She waved the heinous uniform that Regina had wanted her to wear back in the day at Maleficent.

“You are disproportionately chipper for someone who nearly lost her son not five hours ago.”

“I bounce back pretty quickly.” Emma pointedly kept her eyes on Maleficent’s face when the human shaped dragon uncoiled to her feet in a movement of calculated malevolence. “Your eyes are really weird.”

It was true. The iris was human-like. A violet blue with star bursts of royal purple spiking out from the slit pupil but the sclera was a deep springtime green. Like an emerald but more alive. Come to think of it, Mal’s lips might be a sort of plum colour, but the interior of her mouth was a lurid green, her teeth were white but overly sharp, her ears were a little pointed beneath all that cascading blonde hair and she generally looked just a little bit… _other_.

“This is what happens when evolution gets it _right_.” Mal snatched the clothes from Emma’s hands and –after a moment of perusal- began to worm her way into them.

She was briefly fascinated with the zipper, her pupils dilating wide with interest, but then she quit playing and pulled the pants on. Emma hadn’t bothered with shoes and Maleficent was still stained with blood –her own- black ichor –not her own- and a rather charming mixture of grit, dust and…egg juices.

Still, she looked pleased with herself and was no longer naked so Emma was counting that as a win.

“So…does the new…arrival have a name?” Emma pressed her lips together and swung her arms back and forth.

“Lily.” Mal planted her hands on her hips, not seeming to notice the way the buttons of her shirt over her chest creaked, and looked smug again. “And she is beautiful.”

“Yep. Definitely cute.” Like Emma was going to risk disagreeing.

Then again, looking down at the little sprog, Emma had to admit it was true.

The baby dragon, still coiled against Regina’s chest was just over two feet long, a third of that being tail and a pale opalescent white in colour. She had little stubby outcrops over her brow and the back of her head that might be horns one day, feathery spikes on her neck that may be spines like Maleficent had and little wings that she flexed and flapped often.

Not to mention the biggest set of liquid black eyes that Emma had ever seen that just made her all round adorable.

Cuter than cute.

“So-o, not to be the practical one but…should we hide villain number two ooorrrr…?” Emma waved at Mal and spoke to Regina who finally lifted her head to join the conversation.

“I’m not a villain.” Maleficent frowned. “I am a dragon. Inhuman is not the same as being evil.”

“Yeah.” Emma planted her hands on her hips too and nodded. “They really go in for distinctions like that in this town.”

Maleficent frowned, not quite up to date on Emma’s syntax but she had the notion that she was on the border of being insulted.

“We should hide.” Regina made to rise and smiled a little nervously when Maleficent reached down without hesitation and hoisted Regina up off the ground with ease.

“I do not hide.” Maleficent shook her head.

“You do when you don’t have my magic to protect you.”

Mal snorted green smoke and her mouth twisted.

“Dragon.” She waved at herself.

“You don’t know how things happen here. Mobs tend to be a bit more _organised_ than a rabble in a village square and they have access to high powered firearms.”

Mal wrinkled her nose at the image that conjured and then shook her head. She waved at herself with both hands this time.

“Drag. _ON_.”

“Don’t. Care.” Regina enunciated right on back at her.       

“We need somewhere that no one will look for you.” Emma butted in before it could devolve further.

“I shall devour anyone that tries to harm my family.” Mal folded her arms over her chest with a thud.

She was glaring at Emma (who had her gratitude for helping her out of the cavern but there was a _limit_ ) so she missed Regina’s poleaxed expression at being called anyone’s family.

“If at all possible, I would like to avoid the event of eating someone.” Emma clapped her hands together and smiled brightly. “Just saying.”

“Our options are limited. I don’t have the magic to fortify the Manor, Mal’s doesn’t work that way and the Vault is no place for a baby.”

“Vault.” Emma frowned, filing that away and then decided she had bigger fish to fry. “What you guys need is someone to take you in so you can lay low whilst I smooth this whole thing over.” Emma planted her hands on her hips and grinned again.

Regina blinked at her.

“Smooth it over?” She raised her eyebrows. “Smooth over the breaking of the Dark Curse which involved trapping everyone here in a loop for twenty eight years, separated families, changed some of them from one species to another and –in some places- rewrote their entire character! Smooth THAT over?!” Regina quieted herself when her baby squeaked and she shifted her in her arms, cuddling her closer to keep her warm.

“Yeah.” Emma shrugged. “If today has taught me anything; it’s that ‘impossible’ doesn’t mean what I think it means. People will get over it. They just figured out that they traded dysentery and a forty year life expectancy for vaccines and being able to read and write. They’ll come around.”

“WHY do you want to help me?!” Regina demanded, looking more harassed by that than anything else.

“Because I promised the kid.” Emma shrugged her shoulders as if it didn’t matter and then looked away from Regina when she couldn’t hide the fact that the next one _did_ matter. “And because…I know you. Everyone else just drank the Saviour Kool-aid and that _really_ freaks me out so I’d like someone to hide behind and you’re it. Also: have no desire to run this town.”

Emma hunched her shoulders in a deep shrug.

“Ever.”

Regina frowned at that. Not really getting it. At all.

“She is not lying. I would smell it.” Mal looked up from her careful gathering of the pieces of Lily’s egg. “Who is Thikid?”

“Henry.” Emma waved between herself and Regina. “Our son.”

“Adopted!” Regina jinked between Emma and Maleficent when the dragon shot to her feet and snorted a gout of black smoke. “I adopted Henry, Emma is his birth mother. Which I didn’t know until about two months ago. The story is long and convoluted but Lily is the only blood relation I have left.”

Several expressions crossed over Mal’s face at that pronouncement and she subjected Emma to a long look but then finally subsided. She nodded once, cradling what remained of her daughter’s egg in her hands.

“We’re wasting time.” She finally decided. “If we are to hide, being on a main thoroughfare is probably not a good place to start.”

“There’s nowhere _to_ hide.”  Regina growled and soothed Lily when she squirmed at such a tense atmosphere all around her.

“Sure there is. You might not have any friends but I do.” Emma jerked her head towards the side of the station and the squad car parked there. “Come on.”

 

**_Grannry’s Guesthouse…_ **

 

“Ye what me to WHAT?!” Granny all but screeched and Emma still had her hand on the barrel of the shotgun that Granny held, keeping it pointed at the floor.

“For me.” Emma held up her other hand to try and placate the old woman. Who was apparently a werewolf.

Go figure.

“No.”

“Just for a day or two.”

“ _No_.”

“She needs this.”

“I don’t _care_.” Granny snarled. “The girl needs a hiding.”

“It’s a complicated situation, I’ll grant you that…” Emma began and Granny cut her off.

“She needs a killin’ doesn’t seem all that complicated to me.” Granny tried to wrestle the barrel of the shotgun back and she might be a tough old broad but Emma was still younger and stronger.

“Listen, I promised Henry that I’d keep her alive and things have…transpired, okay?” Emma gave the shotgun a little shake to make sure that Granny was paying attention. “If it makes you feel any better, she doesn’t have her magic and you can trust me when I tell you that it is a _good. Idea._ To keep her alive.”

“In what universe is that a good idea?!” Granny hissed.

“In the one where the dragon that is somewhat attached to her has made it abundantly clear that she’ll eat anyone that so much as looks at Regina funny!” Emma’s patience was dwindling as rapidly as Granny’s but she arguably had an easier time of controlling it. “Listen. We’re friends and I need Regina alive. Can you just do this for me this one time? Please?”

Granny’s jaw clenched and she scowled but finally her grip on the shotgun relaxed.

Emma was a little surprised that it had been Emma asking as a friend rather than the threat of a dragon that had swung Granny around her point of view.

She revised her opinion of the old woman and cautiously let go of the barrel.

“I already talked to Regina and she says she’ll abide by the rules of guesthood so long as she’s in the guesthouse.” Emma had very little idea as to what that meant but –judging by the way Granny relaxed- it meant something to the old woman at least.

“So it’s true? The dragon is back?”

“Uhm, yes.” Emma nodded cautiously, prepared to fend off the shotgun again but Granny didn’t move.

“I’ve never gone up against a dragon before.” Granny noted idly and then relaxed entirely, she cracked the shotgun and looped it over her forearm.

Emma had very little doubt that Granny could have it fire ready again in half a blink but she realised that was as good as it was getting.

“And she and Regina are friends.”

Emma hunched a shoulder and rocked her head back and forth. Mulling that over.

“Yeah.” That seemed as close a thing as any. “So…we’re good? I’ll bring them in and no shootings and/or eatings shall occur?”

“I don’t do that anymore.” Granny’s voice was flat and Emma held up her hands again.

“Just checking.”

Granny grunted.

“So we’re good?”

“About middling.” Granny scowled but didn’t react any further when Emma backed towards the door, keeping a weather eye on Granny.

Cautiously, she opened the front door to the guesthouse, swinging it wide and keeping it open with her heel. She waved the two apparent villains inside.

Mal strode in first as if she owned the place and looked about with interest. She inhaled deeply, eyes scanning everywhere and then stiffened when she recognised that scent. Her head snapped around and her gaze seemed to skewer Granny like a physical thing. She rounded on Emma.

“You brought us to the den of a werewolf?!”

“Ex-werewolf!” Emma held up her hands. “And –incidentally- the only one willing to put you up for the night. So be nice.”

Maleficent frowned, a truly terrifying expression and then cocked her head so that she could look at Granny again. Her eyes dropped to the shotgun hooked over the crook of the old woman’s elbow and her eyes narrowed.

“There is fire in that.”

“There will be if ye don’t behave.” Granny informed her coolly and Mal visibly tensed.

“We’re not going to misbehave though!” Emma gave Maleficent a little shove on the shoulder. “Are. We?”

Maleficent inhaled deeply again.

“You have a child here.” She mused. “A granddaughter.”

Granny’s jaw clenched.

“So we understand one another?”

“I understand that ye’re bound by guesthood.”

“Aren’t we all.” Maleficent’s voice was dangerous and Granny, slowly, nodded.

Mal grunted deep in her throat and then swept another step into the room, halving the distance between herself and Granny, making the older woman tense, but keeping herself between Granny and Regina and Lily when they stepped into the guesthouse.

Granny went completely stock still when confronted with the somewhat haggard looking Regina and the…baby in her arms.

The scents hit Granny like a smack in the face and it all fell into place. The cracked pieces of shell in Maleficent’s hold, the baby dragon in Regina’s arms and the simmering connection that went from both Regina and Maleficent to the little hatchling and back again.

 Granny’s eyebrows rose in surprise and then lowered in a fierce scowl which she directed at Emma.

“Why did ye not say that there was a kiddie involved?” She swept aside to make room for Regina and Mal to pass her. “Get _in_.”

Maleficent curled her lip at the tone but prowled deeper into the guesthouse, making sure that Regina was on her heels and bristled a little when Granny stepped closer to Regina as she shut the door behind mother and hatchling.

Regina watched Granny warily but did not seem afraid so Maleficent decided to set her killer instinct to neutral and wait it out.

Granny studied the state of Regina. Wild hair, bruises, cuts, generally looking like she’d been dragged through a hedge backwards and covered in…everything.

Even the hatchling herself was still a bit gloopy though it looked as if Regina had done her best to clean away the worst of it with what remained of her blazer that she had wrapped around the wee tot.

“This is new.” Granny looked between the hatchling and Regina. “Baths all round I take it?”

Regina watched her for a long and unblinking moment and then nodded slowly.

“I will buy this place from Gold and give it to you if there is hot water and soap in the offing.”

“Done.” Granny nodded firmly. “This way.”

 

**_Bath Time…_ **

 

Regina ached all over. From top to toe and side to side she felt like every part of her had been removed, stretched wrong and then slapped back together upside down and at right angles to everything else.

Still, she smiled as Lily –her _daughter_ \- splashed happily in the bath of Granny’s very own bathroom (only showers in the guestrooms) and waded about in the scalding water. Steam rose from it and it would have parboiled a human baby but Lily’s white scales didn’t even flush with the heat.

She found it easier to move in the water which came up to her chest when she was on all fours. Her buoyancy let her flail around with impunity, her little wings and thrashing tail sending water flying everywhere –most of it onto Regina- and she just seemed more pleased with herself whenever Regina laughed as a result of every single dousing.

She squeaked and called often, babbling to Regina happily and submitting to the gentle soap and soft bristled brush scrubbing that Regina subjected her to with good graces. In fact, she quite liked the scrubbing and would often turn into it when it was offered. As such, she was warm and clean and was now just enjoying catching the rubber ducky so helpfully provided by Granny and mauling it at every opportunity.

Regina herself was still filthy even if she had stripped right down to her camisole top and abandoned her shirt and blazer as a lost cause. Her pants were stained still and she had kicked off her scuffed and icky shoes somewhere and suspected that Granny had tidied them off to the incinerator.

Regina was alone with Lily as Emma had disappeared off to do some of that fabled Smoothing Over which was probably going about as well as Regina expected it would (even if she hadn’t heard any angry mobs in the offing since the last one). Mal and Granny seemed to have entered into some kind of truce for as long as it took to find Lily something physical to eat.

As a full dragon kittling (they ceased to be hatchlings as soon as the amniotic fluid was cleaned from them), Lily would be just a tiny version of her adult self but something of Regina’s human contribution to her genetics had turned her into a softer version of a kittling.

Lily’s scales were a pale pearly white that reflected most colours making her dazzlingly pretty in a manner that would endear her dragon parents to her. Her eyes were huge and black and she had a little snub nose and tiny button horns all cobbled together in that big-eyed-adorability-ratio that marked cute baby animals everywhere.

She’d darken as she got older, Mal had assured Regina, but the lack of teeth was something of a wrinkle. Full dragons were born with an entire set of shearing teeth ready to shred meat into ribbons from whatever half roasted carcass their parents would provide but Lily’s teeth were nowhere to be seen as she viciously gummed the rubber ducky. Her tongue –which should have been sandpaper rough for rasping meat from bones- was velvety and unsuited for such ferocious actions as a pedigree dragon would be capable of from birth.

So they had no idea what to feed her aside from the magic that Mal and Regina had both breathed into her at the moment she was born.

That would keep her going for a while, but she still needed something solid or at least corporeal soon.

Of course, being alone meant that Regina had plenty of time to think about the mess her life had devolved into in the last twenty four hours.

Mess being a polite term for it.

“What have you come into, hmm?” Regina took hold of the ducky and tugged at it whilst Lily gave an _adorable_ little growl and tried to wrestle it back. “A mommy with a town out for her head, a broken curse in tatters about her and another mommy that can’t ever forgive the first one for what she did.”

Regina sighed and then smiled when Lily abruptly lost interest in the ducky and thrashed her wings in the water, splashing Regina liberally.

“You’re so beautiful.” Regina dropped the duck and reached into the bath when Lily finally splashed to the edge of the tub and scrambled up, trying to get out.

Regina hoisted Lily out of the tub easily and bundled her into the towel she had been sitting on to keep it mostly dry. Lily squeaked, disappearing beneath the soft cotton material and began to claw and chew at that too. She gave crooning little purring noises as Regina scrubbed her dry and then sat happily on Regina’s lap whilst her mother just looked down at her.

“So beautiful.” Regina’s eyes burned and she tilted forward so her head rested against Lily’s for a moment, smirking when the little kittling licked at her nose with velvet kisses. “So is your other mommy. The most beautiful person I’ve ever met and I treated her…horribly.”

Lily flapped her wings and squeaked, rearing up clumsily to stand her front paws against Regina’s chest.

“You’re incredible.” Regina couldn’t help but smile. “I didn’t even know you existed until an hour ago and…you’re mine.” Regina sniffed hard then and blinked rapidly. Her voice was hoarse. “You’re really mine.”

Lily squeaked and pushed with her legs, trying to reach up past Regina’s chin so she could lick at her salty tears as they fell. She was still very young but nowhere near as developmentally simple as a human baby that was an hour old.

She knew when her mother was upset.

“I’m yours, you know.” Regina cuddled Lily close. “You’ve got me, Lily, heart and soul. I’m your mommy. I- -I’m your mommy.”

Regina’s breath hitched and she folded forward, curling her entire body around Lily. The kittling curled into a little ball in the curve of her mother’s heat and gave an uncertain little croon.

Regina jack-knifed upright when a soft knock sounded at the door and she scrubbed her tears away.

“Come in.”

The door swung open and Granny leaned in holding a large rubber topped bottle in her hand.

“Dinner.”

Lily perked up when a truly noxious smell like beef that was on the verge of going off, raw chilies and burned milk wafted into the room.

“Oh.” Regina wrinkled her nose and grimaced at the stink coming from the bottle of pink marbled…whatever it was.

“Yer dragon says this will do her.” Granny entered the bathroom and lowered herself to sit on the edge of the bath.

She held out the repurposed soda bottle that appeared to have the finger of a rubber glove with a hole poked in it stretched over the top and duct taped into place.

Well, Regina supposed that Granny wasn’t exactly swimming in baby bottles.

“What is it?” It was morbid curiosity rather than paranoia that had her asking. Regina knew Mal wouldn’t let Granny do anything that might harm Lily.

“Quarter cow’s blood, quarter hot sauce and then topped up with double cream.” Granny let Regina take the bottle from her and watched the other woman go still, blinking in surprise.

“Dare I ask why you had cow’s blood on hand?”

“We sent the girl to fetch it from the butcher’s.” Granny waved it off and Regina had no idea which ‘girl’ Granny referred to since anyone who was younger than Granny and  female appeared to earn that title.

“Fair enough.” Regina murmured and tentatively held the bottle out to Lily.

The kittling reared up, little nostrils flaring as she sniffed industriously at what was on offer. Her pupils dilated and she squeaked eagerly and grasped for the bottle.

Regina steadied her with an arm around her soft little body and guided the bottle towards her. She smiled when Lily latched onto the teat of the bottle and started to guzzle the contents down with hungry little sounds.

Regina was careful to let her take a little at a time and not gorge herself. She had no idea _how_ to burp a dragon or even if it needed doing, but she was aware of how to look after human babies so that was just going to have to be a good start.

“Where’s Mal?” Regina tried to sound disinterested in the answer but Granny’s snort told her that she had failed.

“Deliberating over which room you three are taking.”

Regina’s mouth twisted.

Well, she supposed that answered that question. Questions.

Did Mal want to be close to her and did Granny know or had guessed what was between the dragon and the sorceress.

“You stink.”

“Thank you.” Regina drawled and took the bottle away from Lily when she seemed full.

She gave an adorable little yawn and, when Regina looked up at Granny, she saw the old woman smile.

Regina frowned. She didn’t understand that at _all_.

“You’re good at this.” Granny said suddenly. “I’ve only got the vague memories of ye doing this for the boy but…ye tried. I remember ye trying.”

Regina didn’t know what to do with that so she thought it best to just ignore it entirely. Maybe Granny would stop talking if Regina stayed silent long enough.

No dice.

“You really do love him, don’t ye.”

It wasn’t a question but Regina nodded even if she didn’t look up from petting Lily.

“And ye’ve had her for all of five minutes but ye’re head over heels for this wee one too.”

Regina’s lips quirked in something that might have aspirations of being a smile when it grew up. She nodded again.

“And I’ve been told more than once that if I so much as breathe wrong in either of yer directions that I’ll be forced into my wolf shape one last time and turned into a rug.”

Regina blinked several times at that and frowned. She mulled that over.

“If it’s any comfort, I don’t think she could actually do that. Well, not without your heart exploding in your chest due to the strain. There’s a limit on the mass differential and considering that werewolves grow throughout their lives and you’re now nearly a century old- -and you don’t care about this at all.” Regina clipped her teeth together to stem the babbling when she looked up and saw a quirk in Granny’s mouth that seemed amused.

“Not that it’s not interesting that ye seem to know more about being a werewolf than I do but…perhaps ‘irrelevant’ is a better word. I’ve no interest in harming you or the wee one.”

“Why?” The question was immediate and wary.

Granny snorted something like a laugh and looked away with a small shake of her head. She huffed out a slow breath.

“I’ve no idea.”

Regina frowned and Granny shrugged a shoulder.

“Can we leave it at me not wanting to have to deal with an irate dragon should ye get so much as a hangnail whilst under my roof?”

“I think that would be best.” Regina nodded cautiously and Granny quirked her lips in that almost smirk again and nodded in agreement herself.

“Did she feed?”

Granny convulsively flinched when Maleficent managed to sneak up on her. She glared at the dragon who arched a brow back at her, unimpressed.

“Yes.” Regina nodded a little shakily. “She drank half of it.”

“That is good.” Mal nodded, smiling in an odd way as she looked down at Regina and Lily. She inhaled deeply and then screwed up her face. “You must bathe. You reek.”

“Pots and kettles.” Granny drawled and Mal just snorted smoke at her. Granny waved it away with a hiss of breath between her teeth. “This is a No Smoking establishment.”

Mal frowned, not understanding the reference and then turned her attention back to Regina.

“Come. We shall use these…showers.” Mal glanced at Granny as if to double check the word and continued when she found no fault in it. “Emma is bringing new clothes for you and I apparently. She has been a useful thing to me.”

“Well, so long as she’s working out for one of us.” Regina made to rise and went very still when Granny swooped in and scooped up Lily so she could do so.

Lily blinked at this new face and squeaked happily when she decided she liked it. Her wings flexed and her tail curled in a single lashing movement of happiness. Then she segued into another little yawn before butting Granny affectionately in the chin.

Granny chuckled, holding the kittling with an ease borne of practice when it came to raising kiddies (despite Lily’s differing shape) but wisely handed her back when Regina rose to her feet.

“I take it ye’ll be wanting fed.” Granny carried on as if she hadn’t just melted like a pat of butter for the Evil Queen’s spawn.

“Yes.” Mal nodded enthusiastically. “Once we have finished with the showers.” Mal gripped Regina by the wrist when she turned to Granny to tell her what a dragon would like for dinner and hauled her out of the room with a squeak from her.

“Mal, I like that arm where it is!” Regina trotted after Mal and tried to ignore the height difference between them.

Without her heels, Regina’s truly tiny height was glaringly obvious and considering Mal was nearly six feet tall without any shoes at all, Regina barely reached her shoulder. She had forgotten.

She had forgotten how Mal’s human form was all masses of golden hair, and high cheekbones and full lips and those big expressive eyes of hers. Regina had forgotten about the wicked grin and the sultry smile. She’d forgotten how good Mal _smelled_. How her skin had such a strange and velvet texture that Regina had spent hours tracing with her hands, lips and tongue.

She had forgotten how being around Mal just made Regina never want to leave.

But she _had_ left.

She’d left and she’d been sure to burn every bridge on her way out. She’d destroyed their friendship, played on Mal’s affections so as to get the drop on her, summoned her own power to slay that little pet she’d had because she herself had taught Mal how to _care_ again.

She’d used every weapon at her disposal and sunk them all in to the hilt. She’d torn at Mal, savaged her and betrayed her.

Regina remembered the reports from her spies on how Mal had changed afterwards.

How she had started to wear black.

She had mourned the loss of Regina.

Just as Regina had mourned her.

Never consciously. She’d never admitted it to herself. Not before casting the curse and not after. Not even when she had sent Emma down beneath the library to slay her oldest friend who had once been so much more had she _ever_ admitted how much she had missed her. She couldn’t. To admit that she had missed her would be to admit why she had pushed her away.

The Curse had required the heart of that which Regina had loved most so…so she’d turned on Mal. She’d turned on her and torn into her and made her hate her. She’d destroyed them and –when all hope had been lost between them- _then_ she’d been able to pull off casting the Dark Curse.

Regina let herself be dragged into the only guest room on the upper floor of the house. Granny didn’t usually tolerate anyone but family up here but Mal wasn’t the type to take no for an answer and she was a dragon. She liked to have the height advantage.

It was only once they were in the small room that Mal had taken for them that the dragon turned to Regina and bent, scooping Lily out of her arms to hold her against her own chest.

“Hello, little one.” Mal smiled that truly dazzling smile and laughed when Lily nipped at her chin and licked at her cheek. “Yes, yes, I am filthy. I will bath and then you can cuddle me again, hmm?”

Regina pressed her lips together and tried not to feel smaller than she already did.

She felt tiny and frail and horrid. She’d had twenty eight years to convince herself that she felt no guilt for what she had done. That they had all deserved it and maybe that had worked in some cases but…not for Mal.

Never for Mal.

Mal had been Regina’s cruellest deed by far.

To teach her how to care, how to love, how to regain her fire and her power and then…

And Lily.

Regina’s heinous actions had sentenced their daughter to a twenty eight year incubation that she had nearly not hatched from.

Regina shivered and hugged her arms about herself when she realised that she’s been so close to being unable to summon the power to break Lily’s egg with her. That she had nearly been so completely tapped out that her daughter might have…

Regina couldn’t even finish the thought. She didn’t want to think of Lily –beautiful, wonderful, _alive_ , Lily- trapped and suffocating within her own egg.

“Look here, I have made a bed for you, hmm?” Mal sank down onto her heels by the empty chest of drawers and Regina leaned over a little so she could see what Mal had been up to.

Pillows had been taken from other beds and stuffed into the drawer. Another blanket had been lain over the cushions and the remnants of Lily’s egg had been crushed to shale over the blanket so that the little kittling could have something familiar that would still hold the heat of her mother and keep her warm whilst she slept.

Lily _mreep_ ’d and allowed herself to be set down into the little nest Mal had made for her. She prowled around in little circles, sniffing and snuffling and finally coiled into a ball. Her tail tucked almost completely around her and she dropped almost instantly into sleep.

Mal huffed another slow billow of magic over her daughter and stroked her hand around the curve of her spine. Lily made a little croon of response and then coiled tighter about herself and fell deeper into sleep.

Regina bit her lip and began to back towards the door.

There. They were safe. Mal had a place to hide and Lily was clean and asleep and…and they’d be better off without Regina. She destroyed everything she touched after all. It had started off as an intentional skill but had somehow become a horrifying habit that she couldn’t control.

Mal had been hurt enough by Regina and Lily especially didn’t deserve Regina’s particular brand of cruelty.

She had already ruined one child. She’d not do it again.

“Don’t be foolish.” Mal turned on her toes to look up at Regina. “I will hunt you down and bring you back. Every time. You are mine.”

Regina’s hand dropped from reaching for the door handle and she spun to look back at Mal.

“So that’s it? Imprisonment for me as I did you?”

Mal cocked her head in that avian way of hers.

“I suppose I deserve it.” Regina looked down at her hands, the only clean part of her just about. “In the least.”

Mal frowned.

“You might as well get it over with. I’m powerless. I can’t put up a fight. I mean- -”

“What _are_ you talking about?” Mal uncoiled to her full height.

“My…” Regina blinked up at her. “Punishment. Your revenge. For what I did. To you.”

“For what you did?” Mal tilted her head the other way. “Taught me to feel? Taught me to love? Gave me a daughter who is _perfect_?”

“I imprisoned you!” Regina glanced at Lily’s coiled little form and stifled herself. “I locked you in a dungeon in a world without magic! I knew exactly how it would hurt you not to see the sky and I _did it anyway!”_

“You were hurting.” Mal stepped closer and took Regina’s hand, pulling her away from the door. “You were driven mad, your soul split in two and there was _nothing_ I could do. You were too far gone, little one. Too deep in the madness, Rumple’s grip was so complete in you then…”

Maleficent went quiet then, something livid and primal shifting deep in her gaze.

 _Rumple_.

She had a bone to pick with him. Two hundred and eight of them. _His_ two hundred and eight.

“I did such terrible things.”

“I know.” Mal nodded. “Some of those things were to me.”

“ _Terrible_ things, Mal. How can you just stand there and- -?!” Regina snatched her hands from Mal’s hold and tried to turn away but Mal just gave her a little shove and spun her in a full circle so she was facing her dragon again. “I _hurt_ you.”

“Yes. You did.” Mal nodded. “You stole the sky from me. You unwittingly imprisoned our daughter beside me in a tomb for nearly thirty years. You betrayed me and turned everything I held dear about you against me and it hurt –all of it hurt- but none of it hurt as much as seeing your soul writhe in a pain I couldn’t staunch, no matter what I did, every single day.”

Regina sucked in a deep breath and just didn’t know what to do. She was tired and exhausted. Her power all but gone and she could _feel_ that it was gone now. She wanted to sleep for a week and just not _deal_ with any of this right now but…that had never been an option for her.

“Did you truly think,” Mal towered over her, “that I would care so little for you that being betrayed by you would make a difference?”

“Caring for someone who betrays you is idiotic.” Regina looked down at the floor.

“I should hope not. I betrayed you too.”

Regina’s head snapped up and she met Mal’s gaze head on. Jealous directionless fury rioting through her. She spoke from behind bared teeth.

“Betrayed me how?!”

Mal smirked, huffing a green smoke chuckle.

“So fierce.” She didn’t appear bothered by that ferocity in the slightest. “I rewrote the curse, sweet. Just a little footnote…but a selfish one. I warned you, I _told you_ , casting this curse would tear a hole in your heart. One that would never heal.”

Regina swallowed hard. She remembered that conversation all too well.

“I lied.”

Regina blinked, looking wildly up at her dragon again.

“Yes, casting the curse would tear a part of your heart out but rather than letting the curse have it I…had it bring it to me.”

“You have a piece of my heart?” Regina honestly had no idea how to feel about that.

“Not exactly.” Mal let loose a slow breath and then nodded towards the chest of drawers where their daughter slept oblivious to the turmoil between her parents. “She has it.”

Regina opened her mouth and floundered for a moment. This was getting far too big and far too complicated for her to deal with.

“It is an ancient magic, to take a piece of one’s heart to strengthen that of another. Lily holds a piece of my heart as well. She truly is the product of our love. Made of a part of each of us. She was in two halves until we breathed our magic into her, that was why she hatched, because our bond made her one whole. Do you understand?”

“Not really.” Regina frowned. “You mean…she has a piece of my _repulsive_ heart in her? Why would you do that?”

“Your heart is not repulsive, nor is it evil. I took not a blackened piece but the piece of you that could still love. The piece you cut yourself off from feeling. I ripped a chunk out of the place from where your love springs and when that is done the hole must be filled and I hoped…I hoped it would fill with love rather than the darkness and it _did_. You love Henry, you chose to replace the light with light and not the darkness. You _chose_ to be good, Regina. You chose to be a mother, you chose to love your child because a part of you had already been chosen to love a child.”

“So…” Regina lifted her hands to clutch at her head. This was making no sense to her.

“So you have twice the capacity for love as you thought you did. Which is saying something considering you had been willing to kill me, the woman you love, in order to save your son. You give everything for your children, sweet. Everything. Even your own happiness.”

“You’re…saying that to make yourself feel better. You can’t possibly know what I feel or what or who I love or…”

“Stop. Lying. I just _told you_. I know that you feel these things because Lily is _alive_. She made it into this world healthy and whole because you did not take your heart back from her. You gave it to her freely and you gave her _more_ magic when she needed it.”

“I am not a good person.”

“You could be a terrible rabbit, that would not change how I feel about you.” Mal shrugged.

“You know what I mean.”

“And you know what I mean, you’re just being stubborn. There _is_ good in you and I can do without the self-pity because –of the two of us- _you_ have been a parent before and that little ball of scales terrifies me.” Mal pointed to Lily.

“You cannot possibly want me to look after her. She’s far too precious.”

“That is _exactly_ why you will be a good mother to her.” Mal ducked a little so they were closer to eye level. “That is why I must hold onto you. That is why we must be together.”

 “Who would want to hold on to someone like me?!” Regina’s patience snapped. If this was a game for Mal, to hurt Regina, for vengeance, then it was working and she’d lost enough. She would not be tricked into…whatever it was that Mal was trying to do.

“I do.” Mal’s voice was so calm. So assured. Not a tremor of hesitation from any part of her. She laced her fingers through Regina’s. “Hold you and keep you, sweet.”

“That’s insane.” Regina shook her head and yanked at her hands, trying to pull away and managing nothing of the kind. “I’m a monster.”

“You are _not_. You were hurt. Hurt and ruined by that _imp_.” Maleficent spat the word. “Who I will be having _words_ with at the soonest opportunity. I realised what he was up to far too late and you were too far gone to care for Lily whilst I went to war with him. That is no longer the case.”

“Mal, no. You can’t start a war with Rumplestiltskin.”

“I would bid you to watch me but you shall be at a safe distance.” Mal snorted green smoke. “He hurt you. Drove you insane. I will peel his flesh from his bones for such a deed.”

“He’s the Dark One!”

“So?” Mal looked genuinely puzzled.

“If you kill him then you’ll become the Dark One!” Regina wanted to tear her hair out. This conversation was getting away from her and then some.

“I said I’d peel him apart. Who said anything about killing him?” Mal twisted her mouth in confusion. “He cannot suffer if he is dead. _You_ taught me that. He will wish for death, make no mistake, but I shall not end him.”

“You can’t…”

“He _must_ be punished.”

“Why?! You can’t be that attached to me!”

“You are the mother of my child, I love you and you are my _mate_. I am not attached to you, I am PART of you! Lily is made of a piece from each of our hearts and that hole must be filled and it is healed only by your heart fitting into mine. You are my weakness, Regina and I yours. We are incomplete without the other. The love that filled the hole in your heart is MINE. _You_ are mine!”

Regina staggered back a step as if Mal had struck her and the dragon frowned in confusion.

“I’m your…what?” Regina’s voice was _very_ small.

Mal looked caught off guard for a moment and then drew herself up, rallying quickly and towering over Regina.

“You are my mate.” Her head ticked to the side. “Mine.”

“Yours?” Regina was very confused. This all seemed far too good to be true which mean it _was_ which meant it was a _trick_ and she couldn’t see the angle. She just had to keep prodding until she found the fracture in the story. “Really? Just like that? I don’t get a choice.”

Mal hesitated a moment and then nodded firmly.

“Yes, sweet. You are mine.”

“You…want me?” Regina just had to clarify.

“Obviously.” Mal snorted a plume of green smoke in frustration. She was fairly certain they were both speaking the same language. Which part of this was difficult to understand?

“Not really.” Regina shook her head a little and leaned closer to Mal. “Do you know what you’re saying? What it means to a human when you say you are…mated…to them?”

“I was old before your language was born, sweet. I have had a few years to master it. _Yes_ I know what I say.”

“You want to marry me?”

Mal growled and tunnelled her fingers through her hair.

“I _know_ you are not truly this dense!” Mal jabbed a finger at Regina. “YES! I want you. You. Regina of the Southern Mills, Queen of the White Kingdom, Captain of the Blackguard and Scourge of the Enchanted Forest. She Who is Tiny But Fierce. You that probably _still_ owns far too many pairs of shoes despite being in an entirely different dimension from that which you were born. You who are just a kitten sneeze over five feet with mahogany black hair and eyes that spark purple whenever you _feel_ with a strength and passion that always simmers just beneath your skin. Yes. You. I want you. You are to be mine. You. All of you. Every bite-size piece.”

“Oh.” Regina managed after a moment. She still couldn’t see the angle but nor could she quite bring herself to believe…the last time she had believed in something like True Love it had been the most crushing lie ever told.

She could not survive another betrayal like that.

That being said…she couldn’t _not_ hope.

It was Mal. Back from the dead. Back from banishment and betrayal and broken hearts and, for all intents and purposes, seemed determined to  _stay_. Stay right where she was so long as Regina was there too.

Regina’s teeth sank into her lip and she _wanted_ to believe. She truly did. She wanted to believe so much that it hurt but the possible pain of another great lie like True Love would crush her from the inside out.

She didn’t know what Mal would have to do in order to get her to believe but…but she was strong enough to hang around long enough for Mal to prove herself.

Maybe. Probably. Yes.

Yes.

“And ‘marry’ is inaccurate. Ours will be a bond that will not even be broken by death. You shall share in my immortality. We will be bound, you and I.”

“Are you sure…?”

Immortality?

Say what-now?

_Immortality?_

Outlive Henry –that was Regina’s first thought- outlive Henry and his children and his children’s children. Dragons could live for eons, Mal already _had_ , and if Regina shared in that then she would watch her little boy grow into a man and then…grow old and die.

Her breath caught and she swallowed hard, that knowledge kicking her in the gut, how could she…?

Regina’s head turned and she looked down at Lily tucked into the drawer Mal had fashioned into a cot for her.

Of course.

For Lily. She’d survive Henry for Lily.

“Maybe we should take a minute.” Regina’s voice rasped, she was shaken to her core by Mal’s intent. Well, she had been waiting for proof and being bound to Mal’s life force was –you know- something of a commitment. “This is a lot…”

“I’ve taken twenty eight years!”

“So I don’t get thirty seconds?!” Regina threw up her hands, more than a little harassed. “You’re asking me to bury my son! Parents should NOT outlive their children. I am not that little girl that said I would watch the rise and fall of civilisations with you! I am not that same doe eyed naïve little creature that thought an eternity at your side would be worth _everything_ and _everyone_ because the only one worth having was YOU! I didn’t have Henry, I didn’t love him so damn much that the thought of seeing him grow old and fade away kills me even now! Eternity is _eternity_ , Mal. How can I live out an eternity without my little boy?”

Mal wordlessly pointed at Lily and Regina smeared her hands over her face and pressed her fingers against her burning eyes.

“I know.” She whispered. “I know. I love her. How can I not? She’s perfect but…this is not the first time I’ve felt this way. Lily is not my first child –well- I mean, technically she is but…I don’t know. It’s all so confused.”

“No it is not. Lily is your daughter. You are her _family_. If you love her, you will stay with us. You will _live_ for us. You could follow Henry in a few scant decades’ time, I would not stop you, I would walk that path with you…but Lily? You would sentence her to a life alone with only the transience of mortals for company? Leave her to lead the same lonely life I did until you? You would put your first child over your own blood?”

“Of course not.” Regina clutched at her head. “This was a lot easier when you hated me. When everyone hated me. I didn’t have anything to _lose._ ”

“You don’t have anything to lose now either. You’re not _letting_ us be yours!” Mal threw her hand wide, claws flashing. “By the _stars_ , Regina, I am HERE. I am right here and so is our daughter and all we want is you. All we want is for you to stay with us, to keep us. We are stars surrounded by candle flames, sweet. I never want to see you burn to nothing. Never. It will kill me. Do not make me leave our daughter alone.”

 “Are you sure?” Regina wanted badly to just _hide_ from all this but Mal had never been the one to let her hide nor had Regina let her. That was not how their relationship worked. “I’m not that person anymore.”

“Have you ever known me to hesitate?!” Mal demanded. “Ever? I _know_ you, Gina. I know you better than you know yourself and I want all of you. If I did not truly desire you in every way someone can desire another then Lily _never_ would have been born. We are already bonded, you and I. All that remains is to make it so that all may see.”

Regina opened her mouth and then clipped it closed. She closed her eyes and tried to figure out what was going on. She was beginning to wonder if the wraith hadn’t sucked out all of her brain power and she hadn’t quite gotten all of it back. She let loose a slow breath and opened her eyes, trying again.

“What do you mean ‘so that all may see’?”

“This.” Maleficent growled, her patience done and she seized Regina by the hair, wrenching her head back to bare her throat.

Regina sucked in a breath in surprise more than anything else.

Mal looked Regina in the eye and there was a suspended moment between them.

 A choice.

Regina could push her away, push it all away. Mal and Lily and the life they could have together. A life wherein her dragon would no longer mourn the loss of her lover, where Mal would no longer be alone in an unending existence, where Lily would grow up with both of her parents.

Regina’s hand half lifted and then she realised what she was doing. This was it, this was the proof, Mal was going to do it. She was going to bind her life to Regina’s so that they would be together for as long as they chose to walk this plane of existence.

Regina’s hand shook.

All she had to do was let her. All she had to do was let Mal in. Let her show her how to be strong again. Let Mal believe because Regina just couldn’t anymore.  

Regina’s hand dropped.

 _That_ was how their relationship worked.

 Mal’s fangs flashed, triumph glinting in her eyes and a low and pleased sound thrumming from her. Her head ducked and Regina’s heart skipped a beat when the dragon’s mouth closed over Regina’s carotid and she bit down.

Hard.

Regina’s mouth opened on a silent scream, her eyes going wide when the _power_ boiled up out of Mal’s throat and speared into her skin, throbbing into the major blood vessel leading into her brain and setting her thoughts aflame. She felt the magic burn into her, branding her, spreading throughout her entire body in a single convulsive spasm.

She clung to Mal’s shoulders, trying to stay upright and Mal growled, winding her arm around Regina’s waist and holding her effortlessly up.

Slowly, the fire died, the same fire that had given her the power to take on her natural form again. The fire that Regina had given back to her all of those decades ago. That was a special fire, it was _their_  fire and Mal had gifted Regina a small piece of it when they had first become lovers, a small piece of their fire to keep and to hold…until a moment like this.

Regina’s magic, kept burning in that flicker of Mal’s flame deep inside her, roared to the surface and clashed with the power pouring out of Mal’s mouth over Regina’s skin. It was a torrent of white hot pleasure-pain as the storm fronts of their magic crashed together on either side of Regina’s skin and bruised a bond between them.

 It passed in just a few seconds but those seconds had melted the time that had passed between them until Regina felt like that raw young woman that had barely been able to light a candle, standing quivering in the shadow of the great Dragon of the West.

 Mal drew back a little, licking at the wound she had just inflicted on Regina. Maleficent kissed the brand once before straightening up to admire her handiwork from beneath hooded lashes. She nodded once with a hum of satisfaction.

 “Ow.” Regina decided after a moment, her hand reaching hesitantly for her neck.

That _stung_.

Oh – _ow­_ \- sensitive too.

Why had she agreed to that again?

“Good. Now everyone will know that you are taken.” Mal was entirely unrepentant.

“What did you…?” Regina winced at the tight feeling of her skin.

“The pain will pass in a moment. I am sorry to have hurt you but it was necessary.” Mal glanced down at Lily and then began to herd Regina towards the bathroom under the pretence of getting her to the mirror.

Regina stumbled once but righted herself and bent closer to the mirror over the sink. Her lips parted in shock when she saw the brand coiling up over her neck towards her ear.

It was a curling form of a dragon, much like a tattoo, though this one shimmered with a flame-like life. The image of the dragon, intricately detailed, every scale shimmering, clawed up the column of Regina’s neck. A purple dragon that bore more of a passing resemblance to Mal’s natural form though its sinuous neck was circled with a golden crown. Its head tilted back gouting a flame of green and silver pluming into a heart shape just below the lobe of Regina’s ear.

The dragon’s nose was level with her chin, its body curling down over her neck and the tail slinking over the back of her neck and around to nearly completely circle her throat.

“It’s huge!” Regina gaped.

“Subtlety has never been my strong suit.” Mal shrugged negligently.

“How am I supposed to cover it?!” Regina carefully ran her fingers over the tattoo/brand/whatever. No amount of makeup or number of scarves short of a freaking hijab was going to cover that.

Mal jerked as if slapped then tried to cover it by folding her arms over her chest.

“Why would you want to cover it?”

Regina spun on her heels so she could look up at Mal and stammered wildly when she realised what she had just said, what Mal thought she had meant.

“I…damn it.” Regina scrubbed her hands over her face. “That’s not what I meant. I just…I wasn’t expecting it and I don’t like people knowing…what is important to me.”

Mal was still at that pronouncement for a long moment and then she grinned. Looking smug again.

“I matter.” She swung her shoulders back and forth, twisting at the waist and grinning to herself. If she’d been in her other shape, her tail would have lashed back and forth with glee.

“Yes.” Regina saw no harm in admitting it. Lily was proof that Maleficent mattered to her.

Judging by the _power_ in the brand that Mal had just lain onto her, the connection that throbbed between them because of it, connecting Regina to Mal’s simmering immortality…Regina mattered to Mal too.

It was true. Mal…cared about her.

Well, she cared enough to want her as hers. To mark her as one of her treasures and –well- if that meant that Regina could be near Lily then…well. She’d make a _lot_ of sacrifices for that.

Though the disparity between Regina’s rather obvious marking as belonging to the dragon compared to Mal’s obdurately unblemished skin was…ill balanced as far as Regina was concerned. She scowled a little.

 “I don’t have the magic to mark you.”

“Yet.” Mal perked up even further and then she turned away from Regina to examine the shower cubicle.

It was pretty roomy compared to others within the guesthouse but Mal wasn’t adverse to a little snuggery for what she had planned next. She fidgeted with the dials, twirling them back and forth until water spattered against the tiled wall. She grinned, pleased with herself and then held her hand beneath the spray, measuring the heating temperature.

She was entirely immune to the heat and could bathe in magma if she so chose (though _why_ she would she had no idea) but Regina’s skin was still more sensitive to the extremes of hot and cold and would continue to be so until the bonding process was complete.

Glancing over her shoulder, Mal frowned when she saw Regina examining her brand again, wincing when she pulled at the reddened skin around it.

Mal shifted uncomfortably.

Regina did not have her magic. She was entirely human (or as close to it as she had been in decades) and as such was even more delicate than she had been when they had first become lovers. Mal huffed out a breath and cursed herself for her clumsiness. She had known the branding would sting but she hadn’t actually thought it would _hurt_ her little feisty queen.

Mal was lost as to what she could do for a moment and then she perked up.

With a single jerk with both hands, she tore her shirt in two and promptly shoved half of the material into the lukewarm water splattering from the shower head, soaking it through.

“Here.” Mal turned back to Regina and lifted the soggy shirt, squeezing it in her fist so the water dripped from it onto the brand on Regina’s neck.

Regina hissed a breath of relief out through her teeth and her eyes closed when the water splashed over the brand. Steam rose from her skin as Mal wrung the shirt out over her neck. She swallowed a moan and let her head fall back, sighing in relief when the cool wet material was pressed to her neck and leeched the heat of the magic away.

“Better?”

Regina’s eyes snapped open when she registered how close Mal was. She blinked rapidly up at the taller woman and swallowed hard. She was suddenly intensely aware that Mal had ripped her shirt off and was now naked to the waist.

Not that such things had ever bothered Mal but it _was_ a distraction to Regina and ever had been.

“Yes.” Regina tried to ignore how her voice rasped in her throat. When had her mouth gotten so dry? “Much better.”

Mal dabbed at the brand she had inflicted on her almost mate and then began to wipe at the grime that seemed to have ingrained itself into every inch of Regina’s exposed skin. She truly was filthy.

Not that Mal was doing much better. Her clothes –what remained of them anyway- might be clean but the rest of her was gritty, dusty and bloody still. The wound on her neck had healed but the sticky blood had translated from her scales to her skin when she had shifted form. Usually she could disperse such damage in the transformation but she was very out of practice.

She was not –however- out of practice when it came to seducing Regina. Some talents she would never lose and reducing Regina to a state to which Mal would happily become accustomed to was something she would never forget.

Mal exhaled green magic that sparked with pink in time with Regina’s inhale and her tiny little queen sucked a great deal of it down into her lungs entirely without meaning to. The effect was equally marvellous and arousing.

Regina made a small and needy sound, her head falling back to bare her throat further to Mal which had the dragon running her green tongue over her white teeth hungrily. Her purple eyes flashed as she dripped more water to steam against Regina’s hot skin. Regina’s back arched just a little before she remembered to try and keep control of herself but it was already too late. She had surrendered in all but words and they both knew it.

Mal swept lower with the sopping shirt material, cleaning over Regina’s collar bone towards the curve of her breast. Her chest was heaving and her pulse hammering in her throat. Her pupils had blown wide.

Always so responsive. 

“You’re wet.” Mal noted quietly and Regina nodded. Mal chuckled. “I mean your clothes, sweet.”

“Oh.” Regina gulped and nodded. “I mean, yes, of course they are.”

“You should get out of them.” Mal abandoned the shirt to the sink and began to tug at this silky bit of nonsense that barred her lover from her.

Mal shredded Regina’s camisole top with a flex of her claws and huffed out an annoyed breath when she came across the black bra beneath.

“What is this?” She was irritable and gave real thought to incinerating it.

“Technology. You’re going to love it.” Regina’s chest heaved with every breath and Mal cocked her head.

She could see the appeal. _So_ much more skin on display.

“I am sure I shall.” Mal agreed easily enough and shredded the bra away too.

Regina made a small sound of protest but it melted into a groan when Mal tugged at the waistband of her pants with only a passing knowledge of how the fastenings worked.

Oh well, probably best to lead by example.

Regina’s fingers traced the waistband of the Sheriff uniform pants that Mal wore and she flipped the button open with one hand and slowly rasped the zipper down with the other.

Mal made an interested sound and mirrored the move on Regina’s clothes. She shoved Regina’s ruined trousers down over the curve of her hips and Regina did the same for Mal. Mal actually growled when she came across _another_ layer of clothing in the form of Regina’s panties.

“You wear too many damn clothes.” Mal grumbled and simply tore the lace away with a zinging shred of her claws.

“You’ve always thought that.” Regina gasped at the burn of silk between her legs.

“It remains true.” Mal growled and ducked her head, brushing her nose against Regina’s, exhaling magic over her skin and painting her with it.

Regina groaned in equal parts frustration due to lacking the magic to return the favour and knee quivering heat at the effect of Mal’s magic washing over the brand on her neck.

“Oh god…” Regina shivered and grasped at the sink behind her to try and hold herself up.

It was all soft naked skin on skin contact, dragon heat and magic burn and Regina had been pretty shaky before Mal had decided that she was hungry and Regina was lunch.

Mal’s hands snaked around Regina’s waist and splayed over her back, hauling her close so they were crushed chest to chest. She undulated against Regina, rubbing herself up against Regina and making her whimper.

She felt exactly like Regina remembered she had. Soft feminine curves over a core of solid steel. Like an iron statue wrapped in a pillow in places and it was that immovable, unbreakable, strength that had made her so attractive to Regina. No matter how bad, how out of control, Regina became, Mal would be unmarked. She would endure and she would give as good as she got.

Regina yelped when Mal’s talons fisted in Regina’s hair and yanked her head back. Mal’s mouth slanted over hers in a deep and biting kiss and Regina gave up on any kind of rational thought as being overrated. She let go of the edge of the sink, trusting Mal to keep them upright and tunnelled her hands into the golden tangle of her lover’s hair.

Mal growled a deep and crooning sound and loomed even further over Regina. She deepened the kiss, licking deep into Regina’s mouth, nipping with sharp fangs and sucking on her lips. Her claws raked up and down Regina’s back and all Regina could do was moan into her mouth and arch up towards whatever contact came her way.

“Shower.” Mal murmured into Regina’s mouth, her hands sliding down over Regina’s hips. “I’m filthy.”

“Hmm.” Regina nodded, barely even cognisant of what was going on but catching on when Mal lifted her and encouraged her to wrap her legs around Mal’s waist. She did so eagerly and was aware of being moved only when Mal stepped under the hot spray of the shower.

“Oh, that’s good.” Regina groaned in a different kind of pleasure when the hot water spattered over her and began to wash away the grime that the day had brought.

Mal growled, perhaps offended at being upstaged by plumbing, but resolved not to let it bother her for long. Her hands ghosted over Regina’s skin, sweeping away the dirt and tensions that had plagued them both and Regina did the same, touching whatever parts of Mal she could reach without ever loosening her grip on her.

They slipped and slithered together, Regina sandwiched between Mal and the slick tiled wall of the shower stall and perfectly happy to be so. It was deep, biting kisses and zinging scratches. Huffs of magic and pleased sighs. Arching backs and questing fingers.

Mal hummed deep in her throat when Regina nipped at her neck with her teeth and bit her way lower in order to mark her breasts with her stinging bites. She lapped at the water droplets sliding down over the curve of Mal’s breast and lower to coil around her nipple, sucking it into the hot cavern of her mouth.

Mal snarled, her back arching and her head thrown back. Water splashed from her sodden golden hair and her claws shrieked over the wall when she took her passions out on the tiles rather than Regina’s soft skin.

“I cannot be gentle if you keep that up, sweet.” Mal groaned when Regina switched to the other nipple, plucking the abandoned one with delicate, wicked fingers.

Regina’s only reply was to nip softly with her teeth and give hard flexing licks to Mal’s sensitive flesh with her tongue.

Mal snarled and hoisted Regina higher up against the cool wall. She licked hard at the brand riding her throat and Regina jolted as if electrocuted. Mal sucked on the sensitive skin now painted with the scales of a dragon and her hand slid under Regina’s thigh to dip her fingers into her cunt.

Mall all but purred.

“You are _dripping_ , sweet.” Mal chuckled, lifting her head to murmur into Regina’s ear. “So wet, I can smell you. Caramel magic. So sweet. So delicious.”

Regina whimpered and Mal laughed again, shifting so that she could slip the tip of her finger into the hungry clutch of Regina’s cunt.

“Desperate for me. To be filled, hmm?”

“Gods, yes!” Regina’s head fell back but she was hardly idle.

Her hand slithered down between the slick press of their bodies and she stroked her fingers between Mal’s legs, plunging two into her without warning and causing the dragon to jump and swear. The heel of her hand ground against Mal’s clit as her fingers thrust back and forth inside her.

Mal growled in frustration at not having the leverage to reach around and fill Regina as she was doing for Mal but Regina wasn’t _exactly_ being selfless in the giving of pleasure.

“Hungry little thing.” Mal nipped at Regina’s neck. “Greedy for my ‘magic cock’ still.”

“Always.” Regina gasped at the teasing slip of Mal’s fingers over her clit and ground the heel of her palm even harder against Mal’s.

She didn’t even feel embarrassed about her girlish title she had given Mal’s somewhat bizarre anatomy when she had first come across it.

Dragons were actually entirely androgynous when in their natural form, and usually decided to take a gender as and when it suited them. Those that learned to turn into humans usually took on a single gender and favoured it but Mal had ever been the type to have her cake and eat it too.

Her clit could –well- extend to proportions big enough to satisfy any female lover she might want to take and Regina in particular.

Regina could feel it happening even now against her palm and she curled her fingers around the hard and slick length of Mal’s ‘cock’ as it throbbed between her fingers as they slid up and down its growing length.

“I had forgotten how good that feels.” Mal groaned, her forehead resting against Regina’s. “More.”

Regina panted, all too willing to oblige, and let her fingers coil tighter around the slick length of Mal’s cock. The dragon growled, biting at Regina’s jaw and Regina could only grin.

Oh _yes_.

So it wasn’t an actual cock, it was a slightly different shape and a particularly memorable shade of green, much like the interior of Mal’s mouth, but it was long and it was thick and _fully_ capable of rising to Regina’s occasion. Every. Single. Time.

Mal growled, her patience evaporating as the heat throbbed lower and lower in her body. She slipped her arms beneath Regina’s knees and spread her wide. She kissed her hard, tongue lancing into her mouth and lips crushed to hers with bruising force, before driving herself deep into Regina, right to the hilt.

Regina screamed into her mouth, thrashing between Mal and the wall and it was all Mal could do to hold onto her. She pinned her there, trapping her between her body and the hard tiles and set to fucking her harder than any other lover had ever been able to muster.

Regina went wild. She clawed at Mal’s back, yanked at her hair and bit and kissed at every part of her she could reach. She arched and bucked on the tip of Mal’s cock and groaned with a clenching shiver every time Mal buried it into her right to the hilt. She whimpered when Mal twisted her hips, grinding hard on that secret sweet spot deep inside Regina that made stars burst behind her eyes.

Mal crushed her mouth to Regina’s, kissing her hard in a ruthless counterpoint to the furious pace of their fucking. Regina whimpered and moaned for her, giving her everything she wanted without reserve or question. Mal could feel the magic building in her, roused by their joining and she knew it was nearly time.

“You feel that, little one?” Mal bucked her hips, hefting another torturous inch into her lover.

“You think?!” Regina gasped, her nails biting deep into Mal’s shoulders.

“Do you want more?”

“Yes!” Regina nearly sobbed, magic sparking behind her teeth.

“Then bite. Bite me. Mark me. Brand me. Fit your heart to mine as our bodies fit.” Mal goaded her, twisting her hips back and forth and torturing them both. “Make me scream for you.”

Regina was barely aware of what she was doing. It was ancient magic that Mal was stirring up in her. Older than words or names, as old as dragons, and Regina could no more resist it than she could the need to eat or drink.

Primal need and magic boiled and sparked in her mouth behind her teeth and she knew _exactly_ where to brand her lover.

There was a spot on Mal’s left breast, at the level of Regina’s lips when they stood side by side barefoot. Regina had pressed a kiss there often to feel the strong pound of her dragon’s heart against her lips and because of the soft intimacy that was afforded only to her at such a gesture.

The magic filled her head, pounded in her veins, throbbed in her heart and Regina couldn’t shake it. She couldn’t clear it, she couldn’t think straight, all she could do was _want_.

She bent, biting deep into the curve of Mal’s breast and the magic poured out of her mouth and speared into Mal’s skin. Lines like ink spread over her flesh, branding into her, steaming under the already heated water.

Mal threw back her head, roaring a gout of fire that scorched the ceiling and coming hard. She tore at the wall rather than ruining Regina’s soft skin. Tiles clattered free, smashing into the bottom of the stall, furrows raked into the bricks beneath them. She arched, grinding as deep into Regina as she could and purring at the sensation of Regina losing control and shivering hard around her as she came too.

The magic poured out of Regina’s mouth, throbbing in time with the galloping pace of her heart, until she had no more to give. Mal had wrung her dry _again_ but she couldn’t summon a single drop of venom about it.

They collapsed back against the wall, Mal crushing her there, her cock pulling free of Regina as it retracted. Mal was just too exhausted to bring her off again. It had been a _very_ long day for both of them. A long curse.

It was all Mal could do to hold them both up, her forehead resting against Regina’s, their noses brushing against one another and magic huffing in clouds from their mouths as they panted slowly, recovering themselves.

“Heh.” Regina was the first to recover. Her hand lifting to trace over the lines of the brand she had left on Maleficent. Her dragon.

A blue dragon curled around the curve of Mal’s breast, arching up over the slope around a purplish red heart that throbbed brighter and dimmer in time with Mal’s own heartbeat. The Blue dragon coiled around the heart protectively, teeth bared to ward others off, its wings half furled as if ready to pounce and its long tail curling beneath the underside of Mal’s breast then up and around and around again to spiral around Mal’s dark nipple.

“Mine.” Regina smirked, pleased with herself.

“Mine.” Mal agreed, pressing a kiss to the dragon painted on the side of Regina’s neck. She glanced down at her own brand and chuckled. “Now who isn’t subtle?”

“I have never claimed to be so.” Regina informed her primly and Mal snickered.

Regina let her head thump back against the wall and reached out to slap at the faucet until the shower died away to nothing and the water wouldn’t ruin the already trashed wall. She’d better get her magic back soon or learn how to retile a wall lest the old wolf become intractable about the whole affair.

“I’m exhausted.” Regina panted.

“You are drained of magic twice now today not to mention having your soul ripped out and then replaced –which you will never allow to happen again, I forbid it- it is little wonder to me that you need rest.”

“Not all of us have the constitution of dragons.” Regina yawned and grumbled when Mal shifted her, pulling her dripping from the shower stall to set her down onto the bathmat.

Maleficent didn’t want her little almost human to cut her dainty feet on the shattered tiles. Mal wrinkled her nose. This toed the line of guesthood. Fair enough that she hadn’t been precisely in control of herself when she had shredded the tiles away but…she would fix them.

In a little while, when her nervous system stopped jangling, she would fix them.

Mal squeaked when something flopped over her head and she growled when Regina laughed at the sound.

“It’s a towel, oh fearsome one.”

“Startling a dragon is never wise.” Mal’s voice was muffled under the towel, somewhat ruining the effect. She devolved into a purr when Regina began to scrunch the towel through the masses of Mal’s hair and dry it as best she could.

It was so thick and soft, Regina could and had whiled away hours just petting it. She had enjoyed it most when Mal had left it loose and perhaps seeing Mal with it bound beneath the black cowl of her mourning clothes had been the worst thing about breaking ties with her.

“This stuff is nonsense.” Mal grumbled from beneath the towel but leaned into the contact of Regina’s hands even through the material. “Perhaps I should cut it away as you have done yours.”

“No!” Regina blinked, surprised by her own vehemence.

Mal tugged the towel from her head, looking flushed and tousled and just so damn adorable for a force of nature that could devastate entire kingdoms in an afternoon.

“I mean, it’s your hair, I just…” Regina flapped her hand ineffectually and Mal smirked.

“You like it.”

“Yes.”

“I liked yours when it was longer.” Mal tangled her claws through Regina’s jaw length hair. It had begun to grow again with the destruction of the curse but that had been mere hours ago and it was still boyish by Enchanted Forest standards. “So soft.”

“I…could grow it. when my magic recovers.” Regina offered quietly and Mal’s smile was dazzling.

“Only if you wish it. Yours is a face that is beautiful no matter how it is framed.” Mal leaned down and kissed Regina on the forehead. “I will keep this golden nonsense then. Since it pleases you so.”

Regina blinked. No one had ever done that for her before. She swallowed hard and opened her mouth to say something but she was cut off by a sharp knock on the door.

Mal whirled on her heel with a growl and Regina caught her by the elbow before she could roast whoever it was clean through the door.

“Guesthood.” She reminded Mal and the dragon subsided with a growl.

Regina sidled around Mal, hitching the towel tightly around her body and went to the door. She cautiously opened it to find nobody there but a sports bag by the door with a scrawled note folded on top of it.

_Clothes from your house._

_Henry helped, he wants to see you. I didn’t know what to tell him other than you were okay and Mal had saved you. He doesn’t know about Lily._

_Bought some stuff for Mal and for the little one._

_Will check back later._

_-E_

 

Regina blinked at the note in her hand and wondered what the hell the Saviour was up to.

Cautiously picking up the bag –which was HEAVY- she ducked back into the room and set to perusing the contents.

There were several sets of her own clothing, toiletries from her bathroom, clothes with the tags still on for Mal, blankets, baby bottles, a couple of rubber duckies (Regina suspected Granny had been involved somewhere along the line in this), her laptop, the charger for it, several DVD’s and the book she had been reading before the stress of Henry’s curse shenanigans had put paid to any kind of spare attention on her part she might have had for fiction.

“What’s this?” Mal padded from the bathroom with her own towel. Magic plumed around her and a quick glance confirmed that the bathroom no longer looked like a dragon had used it for a scratching post.

“Supplies for hiding out.” Regina looked up at Mal and was distracted by all the naked skin on display. She rummaged and hauled out a tee shirt that would fit Mal and a pair of Stars and Stripes girly boxers (Regina and Emma were going to have _words_ ).

Mal snorted but took the hint and the clothes. She removed the tags as per Regina’s instructions and wriggled into her new clothes which were just a _bit_ too small for her and did nothing to stop Regina ogling at all.

There was something _about_ that inch of skin bared between the hem of her tee shirt and the waistband of those tiny shorts that did nothing at all for Regina’s concentration.

“Where am I going that I must be dressed?” Mal scrunched her hands through her damp hair and looked brightly about herself.

Regina pressed her lips together and realised that she and Mal were going to have to have a talk if she considered tee shirt and panties ‘dressed’.

“We need to eat.” Regina reminded her.

“No. Emma has spoken to the old wolf and told her that we are finished enjoying one another. She will bring the food presently she says.” Mal took on a faraway look for a moment and then grinned brightly at Regina.

“Enjoying…one another…” Regina sat down on the end of the bed with a thud.

Oh, that was right, werewolf –and dragon- hearing.

“Blankets for Lily, bottles for food –Emma does make an _excellent_ servant- what is this? Is it a book?” Mal picked up the laptop, turning it this way and that.

“More like a magic mirror.” Regina let loose a sigh and flopped back onto the bed to stare up at the ceiling fan. “It does lots of things.”

“Is the djinn trapped inside?” Mal loomed over her, snapping the laptop closed with a clap.

“No. He’s wandering about somewhere out there.” Regina waved negligently at the window and closed her eyes.

And to think, the worst thing she’d had to deal with this morning was an angry mob out for her head.

Regina let loose a slow breath and snapped open her eyes when the mattress dipped beside her. She looked up to see Mal propped above her on her elbows, golden hair wild and her green grin making her purple eyes sparkle.

“You are beautiful.” Mal smiled at her, giddy at being free still and Regina managed a tired smile. “There were scribblings in the book mirror.”

Regina lifted her hand and daintily took the folded piece of paper from Mal. She peeled it open and turned it right way up so that she might read the careful writing printed with blue pencil over the paper.

 

_Mom,_

_Emma said you were hiding out with Maleficent and I should pick some stuff to keep you busy._

_I got your favourite PJ’s and your laptop because you don’t like being behind on stuff and I put in Dragonheart, How to Train Your Dragon and the Hobbit movies for you and Maleficent to watch because dragons._

_Though maybe skip the bit where Smaug gets killed._

_I snuck a bag of marshmallows and cookies in too. Maybe Maleficent can make s’mores for you with her fire._

_Henry_

_xox_

 

Regina sucked in a sudden and deep breath, her eyes burning and she clutched the note to her chest. She closed her eyes and tried not to have a complete mental breakdown.

It had been a bit of a DAY.

A bit of a day and she had to find a way to tell her son that she would long outlive him. That she had a…wife…now. Oh, and he had a baby sister.

Which was a dragon.

Regina rubbed at her forehead and jumped when Mal leaned over her, resting her chin on Regina’s shoulder.

“What does it say?”

Regina sucked in a breath and her eyes flashed open.

Of course, Mal couldn’t read English. She couldn’t read very well at all. Trickery of dragon to human compression it would seem did something to her eyes and their ability to track writing on paper.

“It’s from Henry.”

Mal snorted smoke.

“He gave us movies to watch about dragons and marshmallows and cookies for your sweet tooth.”

“My sweet tooth is very discerning.” Mal made a point of nipping at Regina’s skin with her teeth and Regina even managed a smile. “What is a movie?”

“It is…an illusion that tells a story. Henry loves them.”

“Good for Henry.” Mal’s voice was devoid of inflection. This precious Henry had already become a wedge between herself and her mate, she could not say she was a fan but she was resigned to Regina being attached to the little meatbag.

“How am I going to tell him?” Regina murmured at the ceiling more than Mal.

“Tell him what? That you are now mine more than his or that his family tree just became a trifle more –hmm- primordial?”

“I am not yours more than I am his.”

Mal snorted smoke at that idiotic notion but decided to pick and choose her battles.

“Perhaps you could simply introduce us.” Mal raised her eyebrows at Regina. “It would not be the first time I have acted the envoy for my species.”

“Yes, but I’d rather no _wars_ were started this time.”

“That bratling king was asking for it. Who still stakes out _virgins_ for dragons?” Mal made a production of rolling her eyes. “Everyone _knows_ we prefer concubines of a somewhat…diverse skillset.” Mal raked at the material of Regina’s towel, trying to pull it away from her still damp skin.

“I thought I was a mate and not a concubine?” Regina arched an eyebrow and Mal snickered, rolling up onto her hands and knees to loom over Regina.

“You are a mate with the skills of the _finest_ of concubines. A rare treasure indeed.”

“Oh really?” Regina’s lips quirked a little as Mal planted her hands on either side of Regina’s head.

“The rarest of the rare. I am a lucky dragon.” Mal studied the knot of Regina’s towel at her cleavage and pondered if she might undo it with her teeth.

She thought it doable.

“You are.” Regina informed her primly and Mal chuckled. It deepened into a laugh when Regina gave a cavernous yawn before she could stop herself.    

“Do not fall asleep yet. You must eat. It will settle the magic between us so that your body becomes better accustomed to the immortality now coursing through it.” Mal pressed a kiss to the tip of Regina’s nose.  

Regina stiffened at the reminder of how much had changed. She had been quite happy to operate in her flirty little pocket of denial that had just been so rudely burst.

She felt the panic begin to well up in her. She couldn’t do this. It was too much. She had no idea what to do. She just…

“Do not despair, sweet. I am here. I will not let you go through this alone.”

Regina turned her head and was surprised when Mal looked at her with a calm sobriety that was somehow grounding.

“You are not alone.” She murmured and kissed Regina softly. “However you tell Henry, I will be at your side when you do.”

“Promise?” The word was far too small but Regina was far too tired to care.

“I swear it.”

Regina let loose another sigh and curled onto her side, tucking herself close to Mal. Just for a moment, just to regroup.

She was asleep before Granny could arrive with the food to make pointed comment about needing to invest in some new earplugs.  


	2. Status Quo

**Status Quo**

 

**_The Guesthouse…_ **

 

Granny, the old woman noted quietly to herself, was doomed.

She scowled a little at the thought and prodded at the eggs she was scrambling.

She didn’t like the Evil Queen. She didn’t. That monster was in need of a live skinning. Hanged, drawn and quartered for her crimes. Buried alive. Burned at the stake.

Any and all of the above…

Regina Mills though…Regina the Mayor. The Mayor that had warded Gold off from foreclosing on the guesthouse more than once. Fair enough, it had likely had more to do with Regina fucking over Gold than it had anything to do with Granny at all but the fact remained that the Guesthouse still ostensibly remained under Granny’s care rather than ending in her being evicted.

Regina Mills, mother to Henry Mills, the fine young lad that had broken the curse and freed them all.

_He_ wasn’t a monster. He was good and kind –hard headed and stubborn for sure and he had undoubtedly learned that from Regina- but he hadn’t learned his moral compass from his absentee birth mother. He had learned to be good _somewhere_ and the only other option than it sprouting from his blood alone was Regina.

Werewolves had a somewhat more assertive argument when it came to the Nature vs. Nurture conundrum. New werewolves went berserk. It was a fact. The sensory explosion was too much for the human brain to deal with so they were terrified and the massive transformation was exhausting so they were hungry. It wasn’t _evil_ -per se- to eat the first hapless McNugget of the natural world the wolf came across but it WAS evil to know it was going to happen and do nothing about it.

The point was that werewolves had to be _taught_ how to control themselves. How to be good.

And Granny Lucas had never noticed much difference between werewolf children and human children.

So someone had raised Henry to be good.

And Regina was the only option.

Granny’s jaw rocked to the side and she scowled as she scrambled the eggs a trifle more enthusiastically than was strictly necessary but she was having a crisis here, alright? She was entitled to a bit of mad scrambling.

Granny let loose a low growl that might serve to remind folks that needed it that the wolf wasn’t _quite_ dead in the old woman.

So…something must have changed.

Something must have changed in the eighteen years between Regina the Evil Queen casting the Dark Curse and Regina Mills the Mayor raising one little boy to be a fine young lad. Something must have changed because Regina loved Henry with everything she had in her. She loved not just with her heart but with every scrap of her being, it was there for anyone that cared to look to see, and anyone that could do that couldn’t be _entirely_ evil.

Not only that but –according to Emma- the little dragon kittling couldn’t have come about without magic from both Maleficent and Regina and Regina seemed to be fairly attached to Maleficent and already head over heels for her little baby girl.

The fact that little baby girls should be squishy and pink rather than white and scaled didn’t much register for Granny. A baby was a baby and Lily in particular was adorable and deserved no ire at all no matter who her parents were.

Which led Granny back to the conundrum of whether or not Regina was evil and still deserved a good killing in recompense for past actions.

Granny’s gut said ‘no’ but it was her head that screamed the affirmative.

Regina had wronged her. Regina had wronged _all of them_ and now she was supposed to get away with it because she had spawned something cute? Something that was cute _now_ but would no doubt grow to be just as fearsome, indestructible and _hungry_ as her parents?

Not something, Granny corrected herself, some _one_.

Granny groaned when she realised her argument was over before it had begun.

She hadn’t forgiven Regina, no way, not a chance, but there was more going on with the woman than anyone had ever suspected (considering the whole soulmates-with-a-dragon thing if nothing else) and Granny at least was willing to wait and see if that led to anything redeemable.

For Lily if nothing else.

And for Lily –Granny heaved a sigh with the realisation- Granny would make sure that Regina was given the _chance_ to show her true colours however dark or iridescent they may be.

Granny wasn’t _happy_ about all of this, but she had made a decision and firmed her stance and that alone was enough to keep her from burning the eggs out of spite.

“Good morning.”

Granny turned as Maleficent sailed into the kitchen as if she owned the place, Lily curled in her arms, and looked brightly about herself. They both did.

“ _Mreep!”_ Lily chirruped and wriggled happily when she recognised Granny.

Granny smiled despite herself and resisted the very strong urge to swoop over and steal the child for a cuddle. Not least of all because that would likely wind up her arms being removed at the elbow for such overfamiliarity but there were also eggs to tend.

“Mornin’.” Granny nodded with as much courtly manner as she could muster for the Dragon of the West but said dragon was really more interested in remembering how to work the handle of the fridge to get to her child’s food in the chilled interior.

Granny sensed it wise to let Maleficent figure it out on her own and smirked when Mal managed it with a triumphant ‘hah!’ and began to rummage for double cream, chili sauce and cow’s blood.

“I’ll take her.” Granny swept in smoothly when Lily tried – _again_ \- to climb into the fridge to investigate all the interesting smells herself and Mal watched Granny a moment before grunting and turning back to hunting for her child.

She might be in her human shape but her priorities were still firmly pointed to ‘Dragon’ for the time being.

Granny cooed for Lily as Maleficent clashed and battered about the interior of the fridge. She settled the kittling into the crook of her elbow and turned the heat under the eggs down so that she could devote more time to Lily. Fortunate really since Lily was Hungry and did not have a notion of what might be inappropriate for her to eat only that she wanted to do so toot sweet.

“Ye want some eggs, hmm?” Granny bounced Lily on her hip.

“No solids just yet.” Maleficent spoke mildly without looking up from wrestling the top off the industrial size baby bottle. “Give her some of the butter. She needs a lot of fat.”

Granny sliced a nob of butter from the block by the hob and dragged her finger through it. Holding it up to Lily, she made a friend for life as Lily latched both front talons around Granny’s fist and began to enthusiastically lick the butter from Granny’s skin to tide her over until her mother figured out screw tops.

“Ah-hah!” Mal figured it out and began pouring the noxious mix that Lily would come to affectionately know as Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Supper.

“Raised many kittlings?” The question was out of Granny before she could think to keep her mouth shut and she truly did wish she had said nothing when Mal went still for a long moment, something stark flashing behind her eyes, before she shook her head sharply and denied it.

“No. Just instinct and good sense, I suppose.” Mal shook the baby bottle with more vigour than it might necessarily require, magic thrumming from her palm as she began to heat the mixture inside.

Granny cleared her throat sharply and let Lily gum at her fingers since she had licked every digit clean of any trace of dairy.

“Where’s herself?” Things must be dire if Granny was desirous of Regina’s company.

“In the shower. We were jettisoned as I was apparently a ‘distraction’.” Mal rolled her eyes. “She is preening for the day. She has ever been one to fuss over what she wore.”

“Nothing wrong with taking pride in yer appearance.” Granny stuck to that rather than ask one of the thousands of questions that were suddenly clamouring to be voiced.

“I do not see why she couldn’t take pride in being naked.” Mal sounded a little consternated and shook the bottle a little too vigorously again. “It might make a more efficient use of my time rather than repeatedly shredding her clothes.”

Granny chose not to respond to that one and handed Lily over to Maleficent when Maleficent reached for her daughter.

Lily wasted no time in latching onto the bottle and greedily drinking her breakfast. It was a noxious meal to be sure, but the wee tot seemed to like it and that was all anyone else really cared for. Maleficent would occasionally huff a pluming green cloud of magic over Lily and it seemed to sink beneath the child’s scales without her ever noticing.

Granny knew that it was nothing harmful. She knew little of Maleficent other than she was a powerhouse that it might be better to stay on the fair side of, but she knew that she would _never_ do something to harm Lily. She’d sooner chew off her own arm.

“Eggs and bacon?” Granny offered rather than just stand there gawking.

“Please.” Maleficent ducked her chin a little in deference to Granny as host and then frowned a little. “What is coffee?”

“It’s a drink.” Granny glanced up from adding half inch thick rashers of bacon to the pan after setting the eggs aside on a plate. “That’ll be her ladyship wanting her usual then.”

“Her first words this morning were ‘coffee first, necking later’. What is ‘necking’?”

Granny pressed her lips together and thought on how to respond.

“It’s private.” Regina strode into the kitchen on a tide of her own dramatic timing and made a beeline for Lily. She exhaled a gust of magic over her daughter in much the same way Maleficent had, though hers was purple sparked with silvery green, and dropped a kiss on top of Lily’s head. “Are we behaving ourselves?” Regina asked archly of Maleficent.

“As far as I am aware.”

It took Granny a long moment to realise that Maleficent was being entirely honest. It was wholly possible that the dragon wouldn’t have known she was misbehaving even if she was.  

Granny watched Maleficent watch Regina as she approached and fussed over their daughter.

“What’s this?” Maleficent trailed a sharp nail over the edge of the shirt collar of Regina’s all black dress.

It was simple and yet dangerously elegant. Form fitting and entirely black, a wide dramatic shirt collar, the shoulders of the short sleeves tailored to points and she looked to have been practically stitched into the cinch of the form fitting skirt of it that hugged her nearly all the way to her knees. Wicked stiletto heels completed the ensemble and the only ornamentation on her at all was the impressive dragon tattoo that shimmered entirely up one side of her neck.

Granny noted the tattoo and scented the magic pouring off it as belonging to Maleficent. Granny neatly filed it away as None of Her Business…but made note to observe and collate further data as and when it became available on the subject.

She noticed also that Regina’s hair was longer. Not the hip length it must have been back in the Enchanted Forest, but it fell to her shoulders in glossy waves and she shook it back with a toss of her head as she wasn’t used to the length yet.

“A dress.” Regina looked up from letting Lily’s tail reflexively coil around her fingers much in the same way a human baby would automatically tightly grip a finger placed in their palm. She gladly accepted Lily when Maleficent piled her into her arms bottle and all.

This, unfortunately for Regina, left Maleficent free to prowl and prod as she saw fit.

“It looks like a dress that is worn to impress and –as much as I might like to believe it is for me- you know you needn’t wear nearly so much to have my complete and undivided attention.” Maleficent tugged a little more forcibly on the collar of Regina’s dress, popping a button free from its moorings.

“Mal…”

“We are in hiding. You said yourself.”

“We can’t hide forever.”

“You will recall that it was your idea in the first place.” Maleficent prowled around Regina in a circle. “I did not want to hide. I wanted to eat Rumpelstiltskin and you said ‘no’.”

“There are good reasons for that.” Regina twisted to look up at Maleficent who rather infuriatingly towered over her even whilst Regina wore her heels and Mal padded around barefoot. “Primary amongst them being I can’t lay hands on enough Pepto-Bismol to treat a dragon sized case of indigestion that such a diet would incur. Besides, Mal, you don’t know where he’s been.”

Mal snorted green smoke and scowled down at her wife.

Granny had never paid so much attention to bacon and eggs before. She could have written a thesis on this particular serving such fierce concentration she gave her pan right then…but she was listening.

“So I am to remain here, _hiding_ , whilst you off and take on the locals alone?”

“You are to remain here to attend our _daughter_ whilst I make ready my home for both of you.” Regina’s voice lowered a little with the last and she paid more attention to feeding Lily as the little kittling drained the bottle with a guzzling efficiency. “There isn’t space for you yet. I’m going to make space.”

Mal pursed her lips at that and lifted her talons to rake them gently over the scales of Lily’s back.

Lily abandoned what little remained of her breakfast and squeaked happily at such attentions. She flapped her wings and her tail lashed and Mal offered her hand to let her daughter coil it around her wrist.

“Very well. I will wait until noon.” Mal allowed. Incredibly gracious on her part she thought.

“But that’s only three hours- -!” Regina wisely clapped her mouth shut when Mal gave her a Look.

“I have been without you for twenty eight _years_. Three hours is the most I will part with you for now. You have lain siege to cities in less time. Anything that takes you longer than three hours to do is not something you should be doing without your mate. Fair?”

“That’s not…”

“ _Fair_?” Mal almost growled and Regina’s jaw rocked to the side when she realised that three hours was all she was getting.

“Fine. I’ll be back for lunch. Though this means I’ll be noisy. Inelegant. You’ll hear me from across town.”

“Good. It means I’ll know where you are.” Mal snorted and let Lily be bundled into her arms.

Regina emptied the dregs from Lily’s bottle and rinsed it out at the sink. She evidently wasn’t pleased at having to answer to anyone, even her mate/wife/significant other/terror of a continent…but she agreed to it.

Granny listened with interest as Regina’s thoughts grumbled particularly loudly as a pressure against her keen senses.

Still, she gathered herself and turned back to Mal once she had set the bottle aside to drip dry.

“I _will_ be noisy. Some of it might be particularly…concussive. I will return in three hours and not a minute later but you _must_ let me be for that time.”

Mal considered that a long moment.

“If I believe you to be in danger, I will come for you and I will destroy everything between here and you to do so if I must.” Mal petted Lily and didn’t appear to notice as her child began to pick at the collar of her tee shirt with her talons and then fiercely gum it when it offered no resistance.

Regina’s jaw rocked to the side again and she slanted a look in Granny’s direction.

Granny had never made such a fiercely attentive breakfast in her life and Regina was under no illusion that this selective deafness was all that it appeared but she was a little grateful at the courtesy.

Regina dipped her head in a nod.

“If I believe myself in genuine danger…I’ll call for you.”

Mal thrummed a sound deep in her throat and her chin kicked up in a nod. She grinned when Lily’s head bopped up and she tried to mimic the sound with a little warble.

Regina smiled broadly and even Granny’s lips quirked in a smirk.

“Now, before amendments are made, I’m going.” Regina pushed away from the sink and crossed to fuss with Lily a moment. “Bye-bye, baby. I’ll be back soon.”

Lily cocked her head and crooned a questioning sound. She didn’t much understand the concept of what was going on but she knew that her mother wasn’t going to leave her forever so she wasn’t distressed in anyway. She licked and bit at Regina’s chin in farewell because it seemed like the thing to do and lashed her tail in happiness when Regina laughed.

“Yes. You will.” Maleficent murmured and her hand was suddenly buried in Regina’s hair. She used it to wrench Regina’s head back so that her face was tilted up to hers. “I like this.”

Regina wasn’t given a chance to reply before Maleficent slanted her mouth over Regina’s in a brief but _thorough_ kiss that bowed Regina back a little and forced a small sound from her throat.

Granny worked down a snigger at the Queen’s expense and set the bread to toasting instead of making comment or gawking.

Mal broke the kiss only when Lily squeaked indignantly at being squashed a little too close between her mothers.

Mal lifted her head with one last nip to Regina’s lip with her sharp teeth and smirked smugly at the somewhat dazed expression on Regina’s face.

“Oh sure, addle me before I teleport.” Regina recovered herself with a grumble and needlessly fidgeted her clothes into straight lines. She drew herself up to her full height (almost to Mal’s nose). “I’m going.”

“I’m waiting.” Mal smirked and Regina spun away, disappearing in a plume of smoke between one step and the next.

She reappeared on the street directly outside a certain pawnshop.

She promptly blew the door off its hinges with such a concussive force of magic that it shattered the front desk of the shop, destroyed the till, smashed a hole through the back wall, took out no less than three rows of shelves in the back storeroom and burst out of the back of the store in a conflaguration of bricks and mortar and no small amount of purple sparkles.

Regina stepped into the shop in time to see Rumple bound up from behind the ruins of the front desk and stare wide eyed at the hole running clean through his shop and then back to Regina whose eyes were afire with magic and her teeth sharper than they should be.

“Good morning, dear.” Regina all but purred, flush with power and with a significant bone to pick.

“Let’s talk business.”

 

**_Main Street…_ **

 

“So mom is really okay?” Henry looked up at Emma as they walked down the street towards the school bus.

Things were getting back to normal.

Well, as normal as things could be in a town where a curse has frozen faerie tale characters for twenty eight years. People were reuniting with their families, the damage done by the wraith and by Maleficent was being cleaned and repaired…but Emma had pushed for things to be normal. She’d talked the Principal into opening the school again and she’d spent a lot of time at the town meeting with Snow and Charming talking everybody down and getting them to go back to their lives as much as they could while everybody tried to sort themselves out at the same time.

Which meant that Henry had to go to school today. \

Super.  

“Uuh, yeah.” Emma looked down at Henry with a slight frown. “Yeah. She’s fine.”

Henry frowned.

“She call you today?” Henry pushed when she seemed content to leave it at that.

“No.” Emma frowned. “Why would she call me? We’re not exactly friends.” Emma stuffed her hands in her pockets.

“Then how do you know she’s okay?”

“She’s a grown up.” Emma looked caught off guard by the line of questioning and a little confused. “She’s fine.”

“But she really got hurt yesterday. The wraith got her and- -”

“Hey, kid, whoa, she’s fine. I promise.” Emma laughed and scrubbed a hand through her hair. “She’s just…dealing with a lot right now.”

Henry’s mouth twisted. Something wasn’t right about all this.

No, Emma and his mom were NOT friends but Henry didn’t have a cell phone and he’d have thought that she’d have at least checked on him. That she hadn’t was…worrying.

“She texted me.” Emma hunched her shoulders in a shrug. “This morning. Asked if you were okay. She didn’t say anything about herself so I assume that she’s fine.”

“So you haven’t heard her voice?”

“No.”

“So anyone could have texted you.” Henry frowned.

“Well…no.” Emma scrunched her nose and looked at him sideways. “Who do you think your mom would give her phone to?”

“Maleficent. You said they were together.”

“I did no- -I mean…do you really think a dragon knows how to work an iPhone?”

“Mom has a blackberry.” Henry pointed out with a scowl and Emma let loose a slow breath.

“My point still stands.” Emma drawled. “Listen, your mom is okay. She’s hiding out is all. It’s better if she lays low while I get this all smoothed over. She stays out of sight, nobody gets riled up, nobody gets hurt. Works out for everybody.”

“She won’t hide forever, you know.” Henry shook his head.

“You don’t say.” Emma snorted. “I wasn’t expecting her to. I just need a couple of days without anything blowing up and…”

**_THOOM!_ **

Emma bodily flinched when the sound of the explosion barked out echoing from between the buildings. She grabbed Henry, shoving him down, shielding him with her body and looked wildly around for the source of the sound.

That had sounded like a bomb going off.

She froze when she saw, through the hole in the Storybrooke skyline where the library had been, from a distant street, a purple plume of smoke rising into the air.

“God _damn it!”_ Emma hissed and stood abruptly, her jaw clenched. “Not one day. Not even one fucking day.”

“What’s going on? Why are you swearing?” Henry peered around Emma. “Is that a fire?”

“Just- -get on the bus, okay?” Emma shoved Henry towards the idling yellow coach. “Go to school.”

“But what about…?”

“ _School_ , Henry. Go to school.” Emma pointed emphatically at him. “I’ll pick you up later.”

Then she was off running down the alley between the diner and the ice cream shop.

Henry shoved his hands into his pockets and glanced over at the school bus. The engine rumbled and the breaks hissed.

He turned to look the other way, towards the diner and the guesthouse that was built directly behind it. To where his mom was hiding out.

School?

Henry snorted and started across the street.

“Yeah, right.”

“Oooh, no you don’t.”

“Ack!” Henry yelped when he was hoisted up off the road and back onto the sidewalk forcibly by hands unseen.

“On the bus, kiddo.”

“But- -!” Henry tried to protest but Ruby frogmarched him along the street and bodily shoved him onto the bus.

“You, make sure he gets to class or I’ll be telling his mother whose fault it is he wasn’t there.” Ruby stabbed a finger at the bus driver who wisely looked alarmed at being put in charge of the Evil Queen/Saviour’s son. “I’ll be calling to check.”

“But, Ruby, I have to- -!” Henry’s protests were cut off when the driver hauled on the door mechanisms and slammed the door shut almost on the boy’s nose.

Ruby watched through the windows in the door as Henry was foisted into a seat directly behind the driver and pinned there with a gimlet glare from the much maligned driver.

Ruby folded her arms over her chest and watched the bus pull away and off down the street.

She heard Henry complaining about it even after the bright yellow bus had rounded the corner to turn off towards the school.

 

**_The Guesthouse, Granny’s Living Room…_ **

 

Lily, Mal decided, was going to be an excellent hunter.

She laughed as her daughter clamped her gums around the head of the rubber ducky and she shook her head wildly as she savaged it with adorably high pitched growls. Lily had no real claws or fangs to speak of but her jaws were still strong enough to crumple the tough plastic of the duck’s head in on itself with a warbling squeak from the base of the toy.

Lily ruined her somewhat sleek and predatory image by shaking her head too hard and promptly falling over her own tail when she overbalanced. She tumbled onto her back with another laugh from Mal and she squeaked indignantly at the duck fighting back.

Mal waited patiently whilst Lily flailed all of her legs and tail, figuring out which combination resulted in her being flipped right side up, and praised her with a crooning purr when her daughter managed it.

Lily was sprawled on her belly on the floor and her tail lashed once as she chirruped, pleased with her own cleverness. She huffed out a breath.

“Tired?” Mal chuckled, cocking her head.

Lily yawned in answer.

She was still so tiny. So brand new. Her scales soft and pearly bright and her eyes huge and black. She was clumsy and she wobbled over often, it was a good thing she walked so low to the ground. Lily was much smaller than a purebred dragon would be at the same age. A purebred would be the size of a large hunting hound. Maleficent had known that Lily would be tiny because of the small size of her egg, this was no surprise to her, but she _was_ absolutely enthralled by the other differences.

Lily was _so_ bright. Her scales shimmered with every opal colour and she was already sentient. Purebred dragons were not born that way. They grew into autonomous thought. So long lived that they evolved within their own lifetimes. Mal had been no smarter than any other predator when she had hatched. She had grown more intelligent as the centuries had passed until she had finally learned her own name and become…her.

Lily had been Lily from the second she had burst from her egg and into this world.

It was more than anything Mal could have hoped for.

Mal stayed where she was when Lily shuffled her legs beneath her body and set to calculating that whole walking thing.

She was by no means coordinated and it would be quite a while before she was running and jumping though it was quite evident by her desire to maul the ducky that she wanted to. Lily wobbled to her four, her tail whipping this way and that to try and balance her and then she hurled herself at the ducky again.

Maleficent laughed when Lily fell mouth first onto the toy more through sheer dumb luck (and Mal scooting it an inch towards her) than anything else but she wasted no time in latching her forepaws around the duck’s body, gripping its entire head in her gummy little mouth and dragging it down to the carpet with her. She lifted her back legs and kicked viciously at the plastic underbelly in a move that would have simultaneously throttled and disembowelled the duck had it been real.

Yes. Lily would be a natural when she was finally big enough to hunt.

“Hello?!”

Mal’s head whipped around and she tensed when the voice rang out from the lower floor of the guesthouse.

Granny had gone out to…do things. Maleficent had stopped listening and dismissed it as being unimportant, she was a dragon grown, she needed no minder.

Still, that did not change the fact that Maleficent did not have someone to hold Lily safely whilst Maleficent herself saw to the intruder in whichever permanent fashion she so desired.

Mal’s nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed.

She coiled to her feet, scooping Lily up and looking about the room urgently.

There was nowhere she could hide Lily that the little kittling would be safe should Mal have to confront the intruder.

Mal hissed in displeasure and strode to the window instead. She studied the latch a moment and stiffened when she heard the fall of feet on the stairs.

“Anyone here?!”

The voice called again. Unfamiliar. It did not sound particularly friendly or –better yet- afraid.

Lily, sensing her mother’s heightened emotions, coiled tighter about herself and gave a worried little warble.

Mal found she had no stomach for that kind of sound coming from her kittling and vaporised the glass in the window with a huff of green magic. A gentle breeze rolled in from the town and Mal was out the window in an instant.

She dropped harmlessly to the ground, landing in a neat crouch and hurdled the back fence of the guesthouse in a single neat six foot bound. She landed in the alley just as easily as she had negotiated the drop from the Granny’s living room. Maleficent and Lily had both disappeared out the end of the alley and into the street beyond before Ruby could even poke her head out of the now glassless window in her living room and grumble something disparaging about the manners of reptilian guests.

Ruby ducked back inside the house –still cursing quietly about villains- and went to find something to board up the window with whilst she called the glazier.

So she missed entirely the sight of a sixty foot purple dragon vaulting into the sky with wings spread.

A tiny white kittling held very carefully in its mouth.

 

**_The School…_ **

 

Not for the first –or the last- time, Henry stared blankly out of the window at the grey Storybrooke sky and ignored the rest of his classmates babbling around him.

Nobody was getting any work done.

Even before the curse had broken, the school had been winding down to summer vacation and the workload had been easing off for them. Disappointingly for Henry who had been dealing with the same lesson plan for the majority of the past _year_ but still…he was bored.

Everyone was swapping cursed stories. Who they had been back in the Enchanted Forest (some of the kids had even been _animals_ ) and if they were still with their families or if they had another set of parents out there or whatever…Henry wasn’t invited.

He had broken the curse and some of the kids had thanked him but another couple of them had pointed out that it had really been _Emma_ that had broken the curse and a few more of them knew that his OTHER mom had been the one to cast the curse in the first place.

Apparently, Henry being the instigator behind it being shattered didn’t make up for that.

So he sat in the back of class, right next to the window, and gazed sightlessly outside. He had an hour until lunch and then he was making a break for it. He had no desire to be stuck here and be gawked at and ignored. Henry hadn’t known that you _could_ glare at someone and ignore them at the same time but he guessed that some of the kids in his class were a lot more multi-talented than he had originally suspected.

Even if he had been included in just listening to some of the other kids talk about their lives, it wasn’t like he could join in. He just had one life. He had lived in Storybrooke his entire ten years and everyone knew him. He had nothing new to talk about.

So he had been different, moving up the years when no one else had because the curse didn’t stop him aging. Then he had been ‘crazy’ because he’d believed in fairy tales. Then he was the son of Regina, _adopted_ son of the Evil Queen. Adopted because his Saviour mom had given him up.

A freak and a weirdo no matter what he did.

_If this is what being good gets you, no wonder mom is evil._

Henry physically jerked when that thought blazed white hot across his mind. He frowned and stared down at his notebook. It was open in front of him, doodles of dark shadows and dragons scrawled across the page.

He shook himself with a shiver.

No. Regina was evil and there was no excusing the things she had done.

Except…

Henry looked around the room, filled with kids, split off in little groups of who had come from the same village and had known one another back in the Enchanted Forest. Friends and family reunited.

Reunited because of _him_.

Reunited because of him and nobody even cared.

Sure, some of them had thanked him but that had been as far as they’d been willing to let the conversation go. He’d tried to ask them about the Enchanted Forest and what it had really been like, he’d only had the book after all, but they had made excuses and gone to find their friends or their brothers or sisters that they had spent years without. Even the teachers were preoccupied with reuniting with their loved ones.

Which explained Snow White with her cell phone glued to her ear at the front of the class. She checked in on Henry often but she’d been on and off her phone all day. Judging by the goofy smile on her face, most of the time it was her long lost husband Prince Charming she was talking to.

So Henry finally had all the family he wanted and he was _still_ outside looking in.

And he hadn’t heard from his mom yet.

Henry’s hand clenched around his pencil and he tried to sweep the hot sour clench in his gut away. It plagued him every time he thought about Regina and how she had looked in the cell…she had given up. His _mom_ , unstoppable Evil Queen, had given up.

She’d known the wraith was coming for her and she’d thought she’d lost Henry and then…she’d given up.

He couldn’t shake that expression that had come over her face from his memory.

Henry’s gaze strayed out the window again and towards the town. She was out there somewhere. With Maleficent. Maleficent that she had betrayed and trapped for thirty years. Sure, they were supposed to be friends but…were dragons good or bad? The book had been vague on that. Charming had slain one to take over his brother’s place but had it been _bad_ or just an animal?

Either way, that was moot because Maleficent certainly wasn’t just an animal. She was a sorceress that put people under the same sleeping curse that had nearly killed Henry and she had been friends with his mom when she was the Evil Queen so that had to mean that she was evil too…right?

Henry’s thumb dragged back and forth over the eraser atop his pencil repeatedly until it was sore but he didn’t stop.

This all seemed so big and real now and he was just a little boy.

He’d thought it would be different. He’d thought that he’d be with Emma but she was fixing the town. He’d thought he’d have extended family in Snow and Charming but he was helping Emma and Snow was calling around trying to sort out families when she wasn’t being all gooey down the phone to Charming.

_So all you’ve really managed to do is break up what little family you had and now you’re BOTH alone._

Henry jerked when that same acidic voice came back to haunt him.

He’d have liked to say that it sounded like his mom but it just didn’t. It sounded like him. It sounded a lot like the voice that was him that had told him being horrible to his mom was the only way to break the curse. He couldn’t love her and break the curse at the same time.

It wasn’t a nasty voice really…but it did have a horrible habit of telling a truth Henry didn’t want to hear.

Henry scowled but he was jerked out of further existentialism by a sharp scream from one of the other students.

He tensed, shooting to his feet and looked wildly after the girl’s pointing finger to see a huge shadow passing over the window.

Henry’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped when confronted with the full majesty of a living, breathing, flying, _dragon_.

Maleficent (unless there were more sixty foot purple dragons out there) swept past the school in a gliding curl.

Henry’s entire class surged towards the window, yelling and babbling excitedly when the dragon swung around out of sight and over the school building. There was a muted thud, the sense of a heavy weight coming to rest not too far away, and the gaggle of children went wild at the possibilities of a dragon landing on the _school_.

Snow struggled to calm everyone down, get them away from the windows and otherwise attempted to restore order. They were all excitable ten year olds but –luckily for her- she had twenty eight years of teaching experience to draw on in order to get everyone back in line.

Though it took her a full ten minutes to realise that good, quiet, little Henry Mills was missing.

 

**_The Athletics Field…_ **

 

Mal looked about the ridiculously shorn meadow and decided this was as good a place as any.

She had landed on the squat building that reeked of children but it had creaked alarmingly beneath her weight and –highest remaining point or not- she had no desire to perch atop something structurally unsound.

That was what this town needed; mountains.

How was she supposed to be a dragon without a decent aerie?

Still, Lily would see grass for the first time and Mal would much rather watch that than bother about the local geography.

Lowering her huge head, Mal parted her jaws and Lily hesitated a moment on her mother’s tongue before bounding forward with an excited little warble into the field of green that stretched before her. She tripped over her own little paws and tumbled over her head but she turned it into an industrious rolling session to enjoy the sensation of the grass tickling against her back and nebulous wings.

Maleficent chuckled deep in her reptilian throat and settled herself down to watch her daughter.

The flight had done her good, short though it may be, she felt less helpless like this. More able to defend her child. It had also served to stretch out muscles that she had not used in far too long.

“Mreep!”

Mal tucked her chin and focussed on her kittling looking up at her from the grass. Her little tail lashed and her wings flapped.

“Mreep!” Lily reared up and waved her front paws in the air, grasping for Maleficent.

Maleficent ducked her head down and let Lily prop herself against her comparatively huge snout.

Lily licked at her and chirruped again. She yawned cavernously and Mal understood. She was tired and wanted to sleep. She was still so tiny and would sleep for most of the day for the first few days. She had indeed spent most of the previous day and night asleep and had napped earlier but now she wanted to sleep again.

Mal shifted, making a deliberate hollow between her foreleg and her chest where her fire always roiled beneath her sternum. Lily wobbled that way, weary and guided by Mal’s snout, until she could curl into the tiny space made for her.

She dropped into sleep almost immediately and Mal’s draconian face pulled into a small smirk at the sight.

Still, she lifted her head and looked around herself, ears ticking this way and that, taking in the different sounds of this drab little pocket dimension Regina had made. Really though, they had to have a talk about what was showing up on the black lit spectrum. How awfully monotone.

A gull passed overhead on its way back to sea. The breeze rippled the grass and the only _real_ wrinkle in Mal’s day was the glimmer of grey Storybrooke sunlight off highly polished steel.

Sword steel if Mal was not mistaken.

 

**_Gold’s Shop…_ **

 

“Regina! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Regina froze in the act of twirling her finger in circular motions, cup of tea halfway to her mouth in her other hand and turned to look at the Saviour.

Emma picked her way carefully through the rubble that littered the floor of the pawn shop and stared wide eyed up at Gold.

Gold, currently upside down and nearly entirely mummified in spool upon spool of gold thread, heaved a sigh at being seen in such a state.

Emma wasn’t quite sure if he was in distress. He didn’t exactly look _comfortable_ but he didn’t seem to feel threatened in any great way either. He seemed to be putting up with what Regina was doing –for whatever bizarre reason- but he wasn’t screaming or writhing in pain even behind his gag of gold so…

What now?

“Are you going to believe what you see or what I tell you?” Regina looked between Gold and Emma and then back again.

 “Put him down!” Emma hissed at her and Regina arched an eyebrow.

Emma was trying very hard to glare at Regina and yet gape at the heat haze of magic that held Gold aloft and inverted simultaneously. It was the first real magic she had seen after all that wasn’t threatening the life or limb of anyone she cared about or needed to run the town.

Magic was real.

Holy shit.

“No.” Regina took a sip of her tea and then cocked her head sideways so that she was closer to looking Rumple in the eye. “We haven’t finished our _discussion_.”

“He can hardly talk to you when he’s gagged with…is that gold?”

“Mm-hmm.” Rumple smirked even behind his gag and nodded but it turned into a grimace of pain when Regina lifted an aristocratic pinkie from her teacup and his bonds tightened by a factor.

“Regina!” Emma scolded but Regina didn’t care.

“Look, it’s real. You can put your hand right under.” Regina bent a little and waved her free hand back and forth beneath Rumple’s hanging hair in order to show there was nothing propping him up from beneath.

“Wow, you totally can- -I mean, put him down.”

“Are you sure?” Regina tilted her head and Rumple –eyes widening with dawning realisation- shook his wildly.

“ _Yes!_ Put him down!”

“As you wish.” Regina shrugged a shoulder and –purely for Emma’s benefit- snapped her fingers to cut the spell.

Rumple yelped when he plummeted to the ground and only Emma’s quick reflexes and boot to the solar plexus knocked him sideways and saved him from landing on his head.

“Oh, now look what you’ve done.” Regina tutted, watching Rumple squirm on the floor like a gilded flatworm. She set her teacup down on the saucer and smirked as a winded Rumple wheezed. “He definitely won’t be able to talk now.”

“What do you want to talk to him for anyway?!” Emma threw up her hands. “I thought you were in hiding! You’re _supposed_ to be in hiding!”

“Don’t _fuss_ , Swan.” Regina straightened to her full height from prodding Rumple with the sharp toe of one of her shoes and turned to glare a little at Emma. “The status quo has shifted. The power stakes yesterday are not what they are today. The relevant parties had to be informed.”

“By stringing them up on the ceiling?!” Emma waved up and then at the door. “And with MORE property damage?!”

“It’s not like you’re paying for it.” Regina shrugged a shoulder, stepping over the wriggling Gold and headed for the back of the shop.

Emma followed quickly with barely a glance at Gold. It wasn’t like he was her favourite person anyway.

“Well somebody has to! What about the library?!”

“What about the Library?” Regina gripped the frame of a chintzy painting and hurled it from the wall with a flick of her wrist. It sailed clean over Emma’s head and landed gilt corner first in Rumple’s stomach. “The place wasn’t fit for public use anyway.”

“Definitely not now that it’s a steaming crater on Main Street.” Emma huffed. “You can’t go around trashing more stuff right now, Regina. I just managed to get everybody to play nice today by the skin of my teeth. I can’t have _more_ drama.”

“I saw it this morning, it’s far from steaming and it’s really more of a hole than a crater.” Regina ran her fingers over the safe revealed behind the missing painting. She studied it for a moment. “Speaking of, you should really call in construction and have something a bit more sturdy than police tape to cordon it off. You really wouldn’t want anyone falling down there.”

“I’ve got the dwarves on it whilst I try and find a construction company that isn’t –you know- filled with people that hate working with one another.” Emma shot a sideways glance at Regina and found that she was being ignored in favour of Regina pulling the safe out of the wall.

The _entire_ safe.

Emma swore and Regina cursed when the entire thing came away rather than the door simply coming off as she had intended.

“Watch it!” Emma stared wide eyed at the hair’s breadth between the edge of the solid steel safe and the toes of her boots.

“Apologies.” Regina didn’t sound sincere in the slightest, she was too busy examining the safe for weaknesses. “Don’t know my own strength yet. Perhaps if I melt it…”

“No!” Emma’s hand sliced through the air. “No more pyrotechnics.”

“Suck the fun out of everything why don’t you?” Regina asked archly and huffed out an irritable breath in the direction of the safe.

Turning, she hopped up onto what remained of the front desk so she lay across it and could see Rumple trying to caterpillar his way across the floor towards a shard of glass sharp enough to cut through gold thread.

“Ready to tell me the combination yet, dear?” Regina waved her hand and all of the shards of glass disintegrated into sand.

Rumple growled something behind his gag and wriggled onto his back to glare up at Regina.

“Umk oo.” He grunted and Regina narrowed her eyes at him but hopped down off the counter and glared at the safe again.

“What’s so important that’s in the safe?” Emma eyeballed it warily.

“Deeds. He owns half of the town still and I did promise Missus Lucas that she’d have the deed to the guesthouse.” Regina tapped her foot and considered how to get into the safe without destroying the contents within.

“Isn’t that stealing?”

“Storybrooke is entirely my creation. Gold has the deeds to properties all over because I _allowed_ him to. I’m simply taking back what’s mine.” Regina shrugged and drummed her fingernails against the cracked finish of the front desk.

“You practice that routine in front of the mirror or…?” Emma hunched her shoulders and Regina gave her a narrow eyed look. Emma decided it probably wasn’t the best idea to nettle the walking nuclear weapon with the ability to punt them all into different dimensions.

She would not at all put it past Regina to have a magic Undo button for her Curse whammy in the first place.

“Tell you what; I’ll open the safe if _you_ help me fix the library.”

“And by ‘help’ you mean…”

“Rebuild it from the ground up.” Emma clapped her hands together, eyebrows raised and gave her best winning smile.

Regina arched an eyebrow.

“Oh come on!” Emma’s shoulders slumped. “We are the only two people aside from –I dunno- Granny that are _functioning_ in Storybrooke right now and we’ll get a lot more done if we work together.”

“How are we working together if I’m doing all the heavy lifting?” Regina cocked her head but there was a hint of a smirk about her mouth. She was rather enjoying herself.

“I’ll be your ‘parole officer’.” Emma scrunched her fingers in the air to show her punctuation and Regina scowled at her for such crass behaviour. Emma heaved a sigh. “Look, I’m under no illusion that anyone controls you but you can’t deny that the angry mob frequency might be greatly lessened if it were to appear that you were working on the…”

“Side of good?” Regina finished for her.

“Well, if you wanna be all Disney about it then sure.” Emma shrugged her shoulders and nodded. “Deal?”

“Mm-mm!” Rumple shook his head wildly on the floor when Emma held her hand out to Regina. He squirmed and flailed, trying to intervene but that was truncated rather abruptly when Regina huffed out an annoyed breath and he disappeared in a plume of smoke.

“Uh…where’d he go?” Emma snatched her hand back from Regina and looked sideways at the sorceress.

“Not far.” Regina shrugged a shoulder and rolled her eyes when Emma glared. “He’s in the convent. I imagine Blue would like a word with him after all these years.”

Regina smiled like a shark and Emma’s returning grin was a little nervous.

“Well,” she cleared her throat, “how about it? I act as your cover, you put some of the town back together and everybody goes home…in one piece?”

Regina rocked her chin up as she thought about it for a moment and then deigned to nod.

“Alright then. I suppose you acting as PR woman might streamline things for me.” Regina held out her hand and Emma clapped hers into it, shaking firmly.

“Alright then, just gimme a sec.”

Regina watched with interest when Emma dropped to her heels and began to fuss with the safe. She held her hair back, leaning over the dial of the lock mechanism and she went very – _very_ \- still when Regina’s fingers suddenly coiled around her hair.

“I imagine this is a two handed job.” Regina murmured and Emma nodded carefully.

“Right, uh, thanks.” Emma shook the bolt of stark terror that went through her at Regina laying hands on her and couldn’t think why she should be so alarmed.

Oh, wait, she’d just seen a woman that was smaller than she was haul a three hundred pound solid steel safe out of a wall with one hand. With the same hand that now held all of Emma’s hair like a handy golden noose.

Emma shrugged it away. She was more use to Regina alive than dead. She told herself that firmly and hoped it got her through the rest of the morning without incident.

It didn’t.

 

**_The Library…_ **

 

“You have to admit that it’s quite impressive.” Regina rocked her sunglasses up over her head to tangle in her hair and took in the damage to the library.

Rather, the pile of rubble that had once been the library.

“Oh, for sure, there’s no one else I’m going to call when it absolutely positively has to be destroyed overnight.” Emma stuffed her hands into her pockets and shot another warning glare towards the dwarves that hovered across the street.

They kept looking like they were about to interfere but whenever Emma shot them a look, Leroy would imperiously body check them all back up onto their sidewalk and keep them there.

For whatever reason, he was terrified of Emma and that suited the sheriff just fine.

It had been a slow and somewhat trying walk from Gold’s Pawn Shop to Main Street and the Library. Regina had been fixing damaged power lines, cracked roads, shattered windows and had even been convinced to clean off some graffiti on the way. Regina had argued that it should really be a job for the construction companies, people still needed their jobs after all, Emma had argued that the good Regina was doing would do a lot for her public image, Regina had argued…well, she’d just argued and Emma was feeling altogether harassed and unappreciated in her time but –for the first time since the curse broke- comfortable in her own skin.

Regina being hostile and uncooperative was blessedly familiar and –yes- she could rearrange things on the molecular level with her mind now but, considering Regina had always been a force of nature to Emma, that wasn’t as alarming as it could have been.

Not nearly so alarming as dodging calls from her Insta-Family that had sprung up overnight and seemed to want to heckle Emma every waking moment to…she didn’t know what, but there was a lot of pressure to do it.

“She crawled right up the shaft?”

“Say what?” Emma tuned back into Regina’s scheduled programming and blinked at her.

“In dragon form?”

“Well she definitely wasn’t rocking her current glamazon shape, that’s for sure.” Emma nodded. “Might have been easier if she had been. In fact…why didn’t she?”

“She felt threatened.” Regina kicked a pebble down into the gaping tunnel that had once been a secret elevator shaft leading to a dragon’s prison. She didn’t hear it hit the ground. “Reptilian brains are different to ours. They accept much greater personal loss in the name of victory than a mammal will.”

“So she really is a giant flying dinosaur?” Emma blinked when Regina turned and cocked her head. Emma hunched her shoulders. “Just trying to figure out where evolution took the turn on your world is all.”

“Our world.” Regina corrected mildly and turned back to examining the rubble around her. “In truth dragons are more closely related to cats and birds than anything reptilian, there is something of the everything about them. They are the missing link.”

“Between what?”

“Everything and everything else.” Regina sank down onto her heels and touched the end of a snapped off steel rebar laced through the supports of the shaft. “Huh. Melted clean through. She hasn’t burned that hot since Aurora…”

“So that’s a legit history?” Emma glanced around the wreckage of the library.

“A history that is not mine to tell.” Regina straightened up and glanced about herself. “I think everything’s still here. It should just be a matter of reconstituting the parts back into their more memorable form.”

“Their more…memorable form?” Emma raised her eyebrows.

“Well, for the past twenty eight years, everything around you has been a library. For the past twenty _hours_ it’s been a wreckage. The bricks and stone remember being a building more than they remember being a ruin. It’s simple magic to jostle the memory.”

“Of course it is.” Emma huffed out a breath.

“Child’s play.” Regina assured her. She shooed at Emma with imperious waves of her hands. “Now, out of the way, things are about to become a bit more…dynamic.”

Regina bodily and none-too-kindly shoved Emma out of the blast radius of the library that had suffered dragon force trauma to the clock tower. She spun back to face the building itself, lifted her arms like a practiced orchestral conductor and let out a low growl when Emma’s phone jangled insistently from her pocket.

Regina’s jaw rocked to the side in displeasure and she arched a brow.

Some Saviour she was turning out to be. _No_ sense of dramatic timing.

“Sorry!” Emma winced and yanked her cell from her pocket. She punched the call answer and clapped it to her ear. “Mary Margaret, I told you, nothing unless it’s urge- -what?”

Regina turned to face Emma fully when Emma’s face paled.

“What do you mean ‘she landed on the _school’_?!” Emma all but squeaked. “Henry’s _WHERE?!_ ”

Regina, her patience done with this conversation, clapped her hand over Emma’s arm and promptly teleported them across town to practically rematerialize on Snow’s toes with a squeak from the little poppet.

Regina grinned nastily and Emma folded in half.

“Never again.” She groaned but Regina folded her arms over her chest and demanded of Snow instead.

“Explain how you’ve been responsible for my son all of an hour and you’ve managed to lose him. _Again_.”

Snow gaped at Regina, quite the different woman from the defeated storybook villain of the day before.

Regina stood tall and commanding, seemingly ten feet taller than she actually was, and didn’t flinch and inch when the children around her shrank back in fear and revulsion.

She cared only for two children and neither of them were in attendance.

Snow’s eyes caught on the shimmer of the tattoo on Regina’s neck and her mouth opened before she was cut off by Regina’s low warning.

“And do try to THINK for once before you speak.”

Snow’s jaw clenched and she inhaled a deep breath.

“Maleficent is here. She flew over the yard and then landed on the school. She hopped down and went out onto the athletics field. Henry’s gone. I can only assume that he’s gone to see Maleficent because he’s looking for you.”

“Why on earth would he be looking for me?” Regina dared Snow to try and blame her for this. “He hates me.”

Snow rocked back on her heels, blinking in surprise at that from Regina. Regina who she knew loved Henry so fiercely.

“He doesn’t- -”

“The athletics field, you say?” Regina dismissed Snow’s pointless babbling and turned to leave the classroom and head out to find her wife.

“Regina, Charming went to look for Henry!” Snow blurted and regretted it when Regina skidded to a halt so sudden her heels dragged black lines over the linoleum floor.

Slowly – _slowly_ \- Regina turned to look at Snow. Her eyes snapped purple fire and her dragon tattoo glimmered vividly on her neck.

“What?”

“Aw crap.” Emma forced herself upright, finally having convinced her breakfast not to vacate the premises of her stomach.

“Charming went to see if he could find Henry, he got here before…”

Snow was left talking to a plume of purple when Regina disappeared once more.

“God damn it, Mary Margaret!” Emma stared at Snow. “Let me guess, dear old dad has a sword with him?!”

“Well, yes, just in case…”

“Damn it, Maleficent’s out there with their _kid_. Regina’s going to go batshit!” Emma took off at a mad scramble, hurling herself from the classroom and leaving a dumbfounded Snow talking to herself.

“‘ _Their_ …kid’?”

 

**_The Athletics Field…_ **

 

Charming huffed out a breath and really wished that he’d not bothered coming to the rescue.

Least of all because it looked like he was about to be the one in need of rescuing.

Or in the very least the burns unit.

Maleficent’s head dipped low and her black lips peeled back over white fangs sharper than his sword. She gave a low and terrible growl that he felt thrum through the ground, setting the grass to rippling, more than he heard.

“I’m just here for the boy.” Charming lifted one hand from the hilt of his sword and held it up and open. His eyes darted about the field, looking for any trace of his wayward grandson.

Maleficent’s scaled face wrinkled in confusion and she snorted a billowing cloud of black smoke before snarling another warning growl that rattled Charming’s teeth in his skull.

“Henry!” Charming didn’t take his eyes off Maleficent but he called out to the boy in case he was behind the dragon and Charming just couldn’t see him. Then again, if he was in the belly of the beast, it was unlikely the boy would answer.

Maleficent made as if to rise but something stopped her and she snarled again, a warning hiss when Charming took another step closer, calling for his grandson again.

“Henry, if you’re here, come out!”

Maleficent bared all of her teeth, her webbed ears pinned back and her tail slashed the turf of the field with her irritation, but she still hadn’t moved because…because she was hiding something.

Something cold uncoiled in Charming’s gut when he realised most of Maleficent’s body moved in some form or another with her irritation. Her talons on her rear legs raked the ground, her tail lashed, even her wings writhed on her back, but her forepaws remained closed tightly around something on the ground beneath her chest.

“Give him back.” A cool calm stole over Charming and he levelled the blade at Maleficent.

She hissed at him.

“I want my grandson. Give him back.”

Maleficent made a snorting sound and her eyes rolled when something occurred to her. Her tail lashed once more but Charming was really more distracted by the billowing clouds of magic that boiled over her entire sixty foot form.

Charming stood tense and ready, not daring to retreat so long as Henry was in the dragon’s clutches.

Something moved in the smoke and Charming hefted his sword, tensed to fight.

Maleficent, tall, blonde and human shaped as he had seen her decades ago, strode out of the smoke and arched an eyebrow at him.

“I don’t have your grandson. I haven’t seen him.”

Perhaps that might have been the end of it.

Charming believed her after all and, glancing at the gleaming little bundle in her arms, there was no way he was swinging a sword anywhere near what appeared to be a baby dragon in what must be her mother’s arms. Maleficent’s actions abruptly made sense and he was surprised that she had turned human to explain herself rather than fight as he had expected she would. Particularly after how their last meeting had gone.

So Charming relaxed, his muscles loosening along his arms, preparing to drop his blade to his side and describe Henry to Maleficent on the off chance that she really had seen him and just hadn’t realised.

All of that changed when Regina appeared right between them.

A billowing of purple magic and Regina coalesced between Maleficent and Lily and Charming and his sword.

She took the scene in at a glance and got _entirely_ the wrong idea.

Wife and child versus Prince Charming and sword did not a happy sorceress make.

Regina’s eyes turned a light swallowing black. Burning red light glowed from within her chest –her heart- her heart was on fire. Magic poured from her and her lips parted on an ear splitting _scream_ that blew out the windows of the school.

All of the windows.

One second it had been Regina standing there and then a searing flash of light, a skull rattling battle cry and a monster had taken her place.

Charming hurled himself backwards when a black beak snapped closed where his sword arm had been a half second before. Midnight talons raked the air, slapping down onto the turf as Charming tumbled over it like a cat after a mouse. Regina’s plumed tail lashed the air and guttural hisses spewed from her sharp tongued mouth.

Charming slashed with his sword, jabbing at her and just trying to drive her back but Regina was not in the mood to be toyed with. Her mane flew as her head darted down, her razor beak closing around the flat of the sword and –with a tousle of her jaws- she snapped the sword in two.

Hurling the blade away, Regina pounced for Charming again and attempted once more to flatten him into meat jam.

After that she was going to eat his heart.

“Stop!”

Regina didn’t hear Emma’s shout she was too busy rearing back from a sword hilt to the eye.

“Regina, stop! Stop it now!” Emma hurled herself between Regina’s gigantic winged form and Charming’s prone body and she threw her arms wide. “Stop!”

Regina reared with another scream, her tail slashing through the air like a feathered whip, and her wings booming wide to show the brilliant blue undersides.

Emma had _no idea_ what she was looking at other than a very pissed off Regina that seemed to have turned into something very sharp, pointy and feral in order to properly voice her feelings.

“Regina.”

Emma huffed out a breath when Maleficent appeared at her side, Lily –now very much awake after all the screaming- cuddled close to her chest.

“Regina, we’re fine. Look at us. We’re fine.”

Regina dropped down to all fours again, breathing hard and her wings half raised in a talon pinioned mantle. Her feathered ears ticked back and forth as she was unsure as to whether or not she should believe Mal. The pinkish light in her chest flared and dimmed rapidly in time with her thundering heart.

“Well,” Mal planted her free hand on her hip and smirked, “look at you all pretty feathers and fire. How long have you been able to do that?”

Regina tossed her horse like head and snorted.

“What –exactly- is ‘that’?” Charming heaved himself up off the ground and grimaced at the mud and grass stains that marred his clothes.

Regina’s feathers rose like iron filings under a magnet and she hissed in low warning.

With barely a glance, Emma hooked her foot behind her father’s ankle and whipped his feet from beneath him. He yelped and tumbled back down to the grass.

“What? She’s obviously not ready for you to be tall again, so just stay down.” Emma glared down at him and stepped prudently out of David’s reach when he tried to steer her away from the human shaped dragon and the whatever shaped Regina.

Emma turned back to Maleficent.

“Though I’ll second that, what just happened?”

Regina snorted a steaming plume of magic in Emma’s face for such an apparently impudent question but Mal answered anyway.

“She’s a hippogriff.” Mal spoke as if it was obvious and –after a second look with Regina being more static than in a flying murderous rage- it kind of was.

“Oh.” Emma blinked and studied Regina from the tip of her beak/nose to the end of her feathered horsey tail.

All told, she was about twenty feet long. Tiny in comparison to Mal’s other form but still a force to be reckoned with. She had a horse like head though there was something of a hooked beak to her mouth. She had a curling mane around her head and over the arch of her sinuous neck that somehow retained the impeccable styling of Regina’s human hair. She had a thick ruff of feathers about her chest at the base of her neck and over her shoulders from which sharp feathered wings sprouted. There was something feline about her body though her forelimbs were like an eagle’s and her hind legs had cloven hooves but with a third toe sporting a wicked disembowelling claw. Her tail was long and slinking and looked mostly like a horse’s with a few feathers strewn about the silky hair. It slunk back and forth like a cat’s tail though.

All in all the most mundane thing about her was her colouring which seemed to closely resemble that of a magpie. She had a white body with a black head, neck, legs and tail. The underside and flight feathers of her wings were a fantastic deep blue that shimmered green.

That and there was the whole glowing chest thing. Emma had no idea what to do with that.

“Right. Hippogriff. Of course she is.” Emma folded her arms over her chest. “I have no response for this.”

“Neither do I.” Mal smirked. “She’s not supposed to be able to do it.”

Regina’s feather tassled ears, most closely resembling those of a horse, pinned back and she looked away from Maleficent.

“Hippogriffs are magical creatures. Sorcerers cannot take the form of a creature of magic. _Especially_ those as magical as hippogriffs are.” Mal grinned.

“For those of us not up on the lore of the vaunted motherland?” Emma slapped her hands against her hips.

“Hippogriffs are the heralds of True Love.” David didn’t get to his feet again but Regina was going to have to get used to the fact that he was still breathing at some point. “Gryphons’ favourite meal is horse, for a hippogriff to come about a horse and a gryphon must have loved one another. They are incredibly rare and even more powerful than that.”

Maleficent looked down at David with an arched brow and Regina hissed.

“Oh hush, we’re fine. We were fine before you even started showing off and throwing your weight around” Maleficent distracted Regina.

Regina’s head rocked back on her neck and she arched a brow. Really? Between the two of them, she was going to get the telling off for being showy? _She_ hadn’t landed on the _school_.

“Lily, look at what momma can do.” Maleficent cooed for Lily and lifted the kittling so she could more easily inspect Regina’s new shape.

“Momma?” David frowned up at Emma who hushed him hurriedly.

Lily was _delighted_ at Regina’s new trick and gave a happy little _mreep_ before clutching at Regina’s long face and licking her on the nose.

Regina crooned a sound that might have been a chuckle in her other form and let her daughter climb onto her equine head to chew at her mane. Mal held her so she didn’t fall and otherwise kept both Lily and Regina distracted whilst Charming winced his way back to his feet and herded Emma a few feet away.

“I get the feeling you missed some stuff out at dinner last night.”

“Uh…kinda.” Emma shrugged a shoulder.

“Kinda?” Charming’s eyebrows shot up. “ _Regina_ is a _hippogriff_ with a _dragon_ baby.”

“Kittling.”

“What?!”

“Kittling, David, when they’re not wet from the egg anymore, they’re called kittlings.” Emma glanced away from watching Maleficent further calm Regina through application of being all in one piece and Lily.

“Right.”

“It wasn’t any of your business.” Emma hunched her shoulders in a shrug. “Besides, I fully expected Regina to be holed up for a couple of days before I had to issue a freaking memo as to her marital status and Henry should be the first to know any- -where is Henry?” Emma trailed off when it occurred to her what was missing from this nutjob high fantasy family photograph.

“I don’t know. We thought he was out here.” David looked around. “Maleficent hasn’t seen him. She said just before Regina turned up and got all…impossible all over the place.” David waved vaguely at the hippogriff sorceress in question.

“So where is he?!” Emma glared at David, like he had the boy hidden somewhere on his person.

“How am I supposed to know? I was just sent out here to…ask the dragon politely if she’d seen him.” David wisely changed his original mission statement as Regina was still twenty feet long and had a lot of claws.

“We have to find him! Mary Margaret said that he ditched class when Maleficent did her fly-by and she –not idiotically- assumed that he’d come here but he hasn’t so…shit. I’ve been in charge of him for five freaking minutes and he’s AWOL.” Emma tunnelled her fingers through her hair.

“Well, he can’t be in that much trouble…” David trailed off when he remembered who he was talking about and if there was going to be trouble in Storybrooke, Henry was likely to be the epicentre of it all.

“Uh-huh, I used to think that about ten year old kids too and then the Henry Effect happened and here I am in Kool-Aid Christian Andersson Land!” Emma flung her arm wide hissing at her father and trying not to freak out because she had a _father_ and now was definitely not the time for that.

“Okay, Grimm wrote the original…” David started and Emma’s glare cut him off.

“Are you _really_ going to geek out on me right now?” Emma planted her hands on her hips.

“Well, now that you mention it, seems a little ill timed.”

“Chyathink?” Emma raised her eyebrows and then turned back to the person that might be of actual _use_ to her. “Regina?”

Regina lifted her equine head and her ears swivelled towards Emma to give her Regina’s full attention.

Emma’s brain stalled a second at finding very human intelligence in those animal eyes but she shook it off PDQ as she had shit to get done.

“Henry’s not here.”

Regina snorted. She could see as much for herself.

“Meaning that we still have to find him and if he isn’t under the nose of _this_ most dangerous resident of the town then maybe he’s found _another_ faerie tale land refugee nutjob to piss off because –hey- it’s Tuesday already.”

A brilliant flash of pink light seared Emma’s retinas and she hissed in displeasure at the burn. When she blinked away the green spots in her vision, she found Regina straightening her clothing and then accepting Lily from Maleficent when the kittling squirmed and wriggled, trying to clamber into Regina’s arms.

Lily curled up into a little scaled ball and promptly dropped into sleep.

“Henry’s safe. I can…sense him. He’s across town heading…for the beach.” Regina’s eyes took on a faraway look before she snapped back into focus. “To where his castle used to be.”

“You built the boy a castle?” Maleficent raised an eyebrow at her wife and Regina shook her head in a manner that made it clear she’d explain later.

“What’s he doing all the way out there?!” Emma threw her hands up. “Can people not stay –like- PUT for five consecutive minutes?!”

“Apparently not.” Regina lifted a shoulder in a gentle shrug so as to not jostle Lily and looked down at Emma’s hand with interest when the apparent Saviour thrust it at her. “What is that?”

“Well, go on then.” Emma waved her hand at Regina.

“Go on then what?” Regina raised her eyebrows.

“Magic poof us over there so we can talk him down off whatever stupid ledge he’s convinced himself he has to teeter on this afternoon.”

“Magic.” Mal drawled. “Poof.”

“She means teleport.” Regina murmured.

“I am aware.” Mal, if at all possible, looked less impressed than she had been when Charming had been waggling a sword at her.

“I can drive you.” David offered, pleased at the chance to do something that might have a tangible effect.

“I don’t trust him on his own for that long.” Emma flashed something like a smile at David in an attempt to soften the flat out denial but it didn’t do much. She turned back to Regina. “Come on, let’s go. He’ll want to see you.”

“No he won’t.” Regina frowned. She cuddled Lily a little closer without seeming to realise what she was doing. “He wants nothing to do with me.”

“He was asking after you just this morning.” Emma shook her head and held her hand out still. “He’ll want to see that you’re okay and maybe find out that he has –you know- more family than he can shake a stick at. I haven’t told him about Lily.”

“She didn’t tell anyone.” David folded his arms over his chest and offered a bright and brittle smile.

“Because it’s none of your business.” Emma reiterated firmly.

“I almost like her.” Mal murmured to Regina though she was fully aware that Emma could hear her perfectly well.

“She has her moments.” Regina muttered in return and shook her head. “I’m not teleporting you anywhere. He won’t want to see me. He doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Sure he does.” Emma hunched her shoulders. “He’s just not, very, I mean, he can’t…he doesn’t know how to say it to you right.”

“A genetic component it would seem.” Mal hummed and prowled around Regina so she stood between her and David. She shot a mean look at the Prince but otherwise decided to be as non-threatening as she knew how.

Which wasn’t the best but David was going to take what he could get.

“You should go and see him.” Mal spoke softly but with no less strength for it. “You miss him.”

“He doesn’t want to see me.” Regina looked down at the light shimmering on Lily’s scales.

“Then I might suggest he get over himself. I tell you to go and see him for you, not for him. What care have I for the spawn of his get?” Mal waved at David who scowled but knew better than to be drawn into an argument with someone that might pick her teeth with his remains when she was done with him.

“He’s not spawn…you know what, whatever.” Emma held up her hands in surrender. “Time’s a wastin’. Are we going or not?”

Regina looked up at Mal for a long moment and then she heaved a sigh.

“We’re going.”

 

**_The Ruins of Henry’s Castle…_ **

 

Henry meandered down the road towards his castle, or what was left of it, and kicked idly at the grassy verge of the road.

He felt…horrible.

He had left the school as soon as Maleficent had provided the distraction he needed and then made tracks for home…only to realise that home wasn’t home anymore.

He couldn’t go back to the Manor. That was where his mom was. Or would be as soon as she came out of hiding. He wasn’t welcome there. He couldn’t stay there.

Henry had been all the way to the front gate, still hanging off its hinges from where the mob had wrecked it, before he had come to that realisation.

He had no home.

There was the loft, with Mary Margaret and Emma and probably David soon. Henry had been set up in the spare room once Snow had moved all the junk out of the way to unfold the camp bed. She’d mentioned the Curse giving her a pathological need to hoard things which had been an uncomfortable moment for everybody.

The spare room had shadows that were all the wrong shape, it was messy and the piles of boxes loomed over him in creepy ways that made his stomach lurch every time he opened his eyes and thought they were something else. The camp bed had been creaky and saggy, the sleeping bag Snow had given him had been all scrunchy and made a _zoop_ sound every time he’d moved in it and it had just been all _wrong_.

The loft wasn’t home and Emma wasn’t his mom.

Henry trailed to a halt, his hands white knuckling on the straps of his backpack at that thought.

_Yeah, and the mom you do have you put in jail yesterday to get eaten by a monster. Smart move, buster._

Henry scowled at that oh-so helpful voice of his that had gotten him into this in the first place.

“She’s evil. She should be punished for what she did.” Henry grumbled to himself.

_And raising an ungrateful brat like you wasn’t punishment enough?_

Henry jerked as if slapped at that and his eyes burned. His jaw ached when he clenched it to keep his chin from quivering. Henry stopped walking and he stared at the ruins of his castle. She’d demolished it. To keep him apart from Emma.

Just yesterday, the sight of the littered wood and metal of the old playground castle would have galvinised Henry. It would have given him a greater fervour to break the curse, to set everyone free and defeat the Evil Queen!

Except…except he had done that already and he’d found out that when he’d defeated the Evil Queen…his mom was still left over.

So what did that mean?

Henry was saved from such deep and brain boiling questions –again- by the booming wings of a great dragon.

Henry whirled on his heels and looked up into the sky as a dark purple shadow swooped over the road in a tight spiral and flared its wings wide.

Maleficent flapped hard, her talons flashing in the sun as she touched down feather light onto the road. Henry would have expected a boom of impact but she landed as neatly as a cat and then tipped gracefully forward and set her burden down onto the road.

Emma staggered onto the tarmac, holding her stomach like she was strongly considering ruining the upholstery by barfing on it, but Regina swept down off of Maleficent’s talon as if she had been doing it for years.

_Maybe she has been. The book didn’t say a lot about her having friends, did it?_

Henry’s jaw clenched at that wheedling voice again and he swallowed hard when he realised he was In Trouble. He’d ditched school. Again. Gone off on his own. Again. Against the express orders from _Emma_ not to.

Ag- -actually, that was a first.

“Kid!” Emma recovered herself and hurried across the road to meet him. Her jaw was clenched and she was angry but evidently relieved that he was alright. Henry managed a tentative smile.

One that dropped when he leaned over a little to see what his mom was doing.

Regina was talking to Maleficent who held up one forepaw tucked close to her body like it was maybe injured or something. She reached up and rested her hand against Maleficent’s nose, speaking in a low voice before offering a warm _real_ smile and turning to face Henry.

Her smile disappeared.

Regina squared her shoulders and started across the road towards Henry and Emma.

“Henry, you had one job!” Emma scolded. “When I told you to go to school, I meant ‘and stay there’!”

“I…” Henry shifted from foot to foot and then hunched his shoulders. He didn’t have an excuse. No greater good or Operation to fall back on. This had just been him being bad.

That stupid voice started humming the tune to _True Colours_ in the back of his head.

“Are you alright?”

Henry stiffened when Regina appeared between Henry and Emma. She studied him with one of those looks that seemed to scour him like steel wool from top to toe.

“I’m fine.” Henry shifted again and didn’t know what to say. “I just…there was…nobody was going to miss me at school.”

“Your teacher missed you.” Regina’s voice was unreadable to him and he couldn’t even tell if she was mad.

He _could_ tell that he had only half her attention. She kept glancing back at Maleficent, watching the dragon cradle her paw close to her chest.

“Is Maleficent hurt?” Henry leaned around to see the dragon properly and jerked back in surprise when Regina stepped in his way so she blocked the view.

Well, some of it, his mom might seem fifty feet tall sometimes but she definitely actually wasn’t.

“She’s fine.” Regina cut that off before it could get started and frowned a little when Henry was staring at her. “What?”

“Is that a tattoo?” Henry frowned and took a step closer, going up on his toes. “That’s a tattoo!” Henry reached up and then nearly fell over when Regina suddenly wasn’t there for him to lean into.

 She shot back a step or three and reached up to jerk the collar of her dress closer to her neck. It did nothing to hide the full extent of the shimmering tattoo. She looked…almost scared. Her glance darted to Emma who raised her eyebrows and then jerked her head at Henry.

Regina’s jaw rocked to the side.

“I’m going home.”

Henry blinked at her.

“Maleficent is coming with me. She’s going to be staying.”

“Uh…okay.” Henry shifted from foot to foot. He was missing something. His mom wasn’t _lying_ but there was definitely something going on that she wasn’t telling him.

“ _Ah-HEM!”_ Emma prompted after a moment more of silence from Regina.

“Maleficent is going to be with me.” Regina focussed on Henry again.

Emma rolled her hand on her wrist with an exaggerated and encouraging motion.

“I got that.” Henry looked between the two women and hunched his shoulders in a shrug.

“They’re married!” Emma burst out when she just couldn’t take it anymore. She needed this drama over and done with before she was collecting social security after all. “Maleficent and your mom are wife and wife. They have a kid too! Congrats, you have a baby sister.”

“Uh…” Henry blinked rapidly.

“Well, I can see I was needed for this conversation after all.” A cool sneer overtook Regina and she raked Emma with a disdainful glance. “Just like your mother.”

“Hey! Not _once_ have I quoted Hallmark at you!” Emma threw up her hands. “And I figured I should do one of the Big Revelations because I’m sure as hell not trying to explain the dragon slash hippo slash _whatever_ Facts of Life talk that’s BOUND to come up in the near future!”

“Needed that off your chest?” Regina arched a brow.

“It’s been weighing on me a little, yeah.” Emma nodded, planting her hands on her hips and squaring off to Regina.

“Wait,” Henry held up his hands, “sister?”

“Yes.” Regina nodded. “Though she is only your sister if…if you still consider me your mother since it is apparently abundantly clear that we have no familial ties. At all.” Regina studied her hands and then looked out over the ocean for a moment.

“What?” Henry looked helplessly confused.

“She’s actually really cute.” Emma smiled a little and Henry turned to her with wide and betrayed eyes.

“You _knew_?!”

“Well, yeah, I was there when she…was born.” Emma scrunched up her nose and realised that sounded a lot more personal than she had meant it to. “Kinda. In the back.”

“When was she born?!” Henry gaped.

“Yesterday.”

“I’VE HAD A SISTER SINCE YESTERDAY AND NOBODY TOLD ME?!” Henry looked back and forth between Regina and Emma and then finally his eyes landed on Maleficent. “Wait, is she a dragon? Is my sister a dragon?”

“Just a little one.” Emma held her hands a couple of feet apart to show Lily’s approximate size.

“As I said,” Regina cut off Henry before he could launch into a tirade about something like this not _coming up_ in conversation somehow, “she’s only your sister if I’m your mother. You have your Real Family now. You should…”

Regina blinked rapidly and cut herself off. She sucked in a deep breath and turned her attention to Emma.

“We need to go. Lily shouldn’t be out in the cold.”

“She’s here?!” Henry took a step towards Regina but she had already turned away and started back towards the waiting Maleficent.

She faltered a half step when Henry’s last question cut her to the core.

“Her name is Lily?”

Regina sucked in a deep breath and threw her shoulders back. She strode back to Maleficent, stepping nimbly into the talon of the dragon and not wavering an inch when Maleficent spread her wings wide and bounded up into the air with a booming beat of her wings.

Henry and Emma were staggered by the downdraft but Emma seemed to take it in her stride.

“Well, I guess we’re walking back then.”

“Her name is Lily?” Henry rounded on Emma.

“Yeah.” Emma shrugged.

“What does she look like? Does she look like Maleficent  or…?”

“Here, I snagged a photo.” Emma dug into her pocket and extracted her cell. She skipped through the apps to the gallery and then enlarged the photo. “I had a hunch your mom might chicken out _Big Time_ when it came to laying out the facts for you so I snuck one when they were talking about how to get us here.”

Henry took the cell from Emma and stared at the photograph.

“Wow.”

A baby dragon. He had a sister and his sister was a baby dragon.

Henry knew the camera on Emma’s cell was a pretty good one but he still had to fight the urge to believe the photo had been doctored and the apparent Lily was some kind of special effect.

But his mom wouldn’t look at a movie prop like _that_.

Henry zoomed in on the picture. It was a candid shot, no great composition and not in the greatest of focuses but Henry could see the way Regina had leaned back so Lily could stand on her chest and unmistakably grin back at Regina when she smiled for her…baby.

“Yeah, she’s pretty awesome, huh?” Emma nudged Henry with her elbow and he jostled himself back into the present.

“We gotta rescue her.”

Emma blinked at him, the smile dropping from her face.

“ _What?_ ”

“Lily, we gotta get her away from mom!” Henry clutched at the cell, holding it close to his chest and he gulped hard. “Mom’s evil and she’ll make Lily evil and- -!”

“OH MY GOD, SHUT UP!”

Henry fumbled into silence when Emma suddenly bellowed at him.

“Do you hear yourself?” Emma stared at him, eyebrows up in her hair somewhere. “ _Rescue_ her? From her biological parents? One of which is a DRAGON and the other is…hell, there aren’t words for what your mom is other than Off. Limits.”

“But…”

“No buts!” Emma sliced her hand through the air. She plucked the cell from his hands and turned it, zooming right in on Regina. “Look at them. Look at your mom’s face. She look evil there to you? She look like she’s going to hurt Lily?”

“Well, she never _looks_ like she’s going to…”

“Oh yes she does!” Emma cut him off, remembering the shark like smile on Regina’s face that morning as she had tormented Gold. “When your mom is about to be bad to someone, you can see it coming from a mile off. The reason you think she never looks that way when she’s being evil is because _you’ve never seen it_. She’s never been rotten to you, Henry. All she ever did was try and keep you.”

“No.” Henry shook his head. “That’s not true.”

_It is and you know it._

“It is _very_ true.” Emma echoed the tone of the voice in Henry’s head if not the words. “Your mom has done nothing but try and keep her family together and in the last twenty four hours she lost one and got another and you want to put her through that again?”

“But…” Henry’s voice was getting weaker by the second.

“Not to mention that Maleficent the very grown up and not nearly so mellow as your mom DRAGON will _eat us all_ if we even so much as look SIDEWAYS at Lily!” Emma flipped to the next photo.

This had been taken a mere second after the first but it showed Maleficent smiling with sparkling eyes at Regina. The bone deep affection between the two women was there for anyone to see.  

“See?” Emma shoved it under his nose and tried desperately to get through to her boneheaded kid. “You broke the curse and all of this faerie tale crap is now very much real and that means that all the gaps in that damn book of yours are filled with people’s _lives_ and not some trite little narrative for bed time. So this is how it works; Lily keeps your mom happy and stops her from rampaging through the town to steal you back because without Lily she’s lost _everything_. Regina happy means Maleficent is happy and will _also_ not destroy the town because she’s lost what’s most important to her –which happens to be Regina. Both Regina and Maleficent not eating and or destroying the town makes ME happy. Happy Sheriff means happy town in the. Real. World.”

Henry blinked up at Emma and then looked down at the photo on her cell phone again.

Emma huffed a sigh and scrubbed her hand over her face.

“I get this is tough, kid. I get that everything has changed…but that’s what _happens_ when you set out to change the world. At least, your own little corner of it.” Emma waved around herself. “I’m not saying it’s us or them…but I am saying that there’s definitely a them and for the good of _everybody_ the Them has to stay together.”

“For the greater good?” Henry’s voice was small and he took Emma’s cell phone from her again when she held it out to him.

“Sure. For the greater good.” Emma nodded wearily. At least she seemed to have talked him around to not wandering directly into a dragon’s mouth.

Henry studied the photograph of his mom’s…new family.

Emma watched him for a long moment and just couldn’t figure out what was going on in the little guy’s head. The whole curse breaking thing was a lot to deal with, more than any other ten year old should have to deal with, that was for sure, but she _really_ needed him to leave Maleficent in particular ALONE.

“Come on, we can walk back to town and get you something to eat from Granny’s. You gotta be hungry, right?” Emma held out her hand and Henry slowly reached out and took it in his own.

“Okay.” His voice was far too small.

They walked a few steps in silence, Henry still staring down at the picture in the phone and Emma ventured an olive branch.

“You want me to print it off for you?”

“You’d do that?” Henry whipped his head up to look at her, wide eyed and surprised.

“Sure, kiddo.” Emma offered a lopsided smile. “She’s still your mom. I’m not replacing her or anything.”

“You’re not?”

“I’m more of an ‘as well as’ than a ‘instead of’ kind of mom.” Emma nodded.

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry, your mom knows that.” Emma squeezed his hand. “She’s just dealing with a lot because of the whole Lily thing. She kind of found out the same way you did.”

“Oh.” Henry frowned.

“Shall I start at the beginning?” Emma offered after a moment of heavy confusion.

“Please.”

“Well!” Emma grinned for him and thought on how best to start the story. “It _actually_ starts with you in a coma before the curse even broke…”

Henry listened intently to what Emma was saying but that stupid voice of his just had to butt in and add commentary.

_Wow, even the so called ‘Evil Queen’ has a family and you don’t._

_Serves you right._

_Jackass._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, this was horrible and pretty much for the sole purpose of setting up this little DQ world, but I got it DONE!
> 
> The next chapter is pretty much written but y'all have to wait for the next rotation round to get it. 
> 
> And I haven't even started the next chapter of H+1/2.
> 
> LOLZ.
> 
> Anyways, this ended up much longer than I had originally intended but y'all have been waiting forever so I suppose you deserve an extra long chapter. Even if there wasn't as much DQ in it as the last one. 
> 
> Don't hate me. 
> 
> THE NEXT CHAPTER IS CUTER, I SWEAR!
> 
> Also, a sketch of Regina in her hippogriff form with Lily can be seen here:  
> http://sinister-scribe.deviantart.com/art/Momma-Floof-Sketch-567760564
> 
> I hope the link works.


	3. Lullabies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set about a week after the last chapter. Regina is having trouble coping and Mal is nowhere to be seen. So Emma and Henry have to step up to the plate with precisely nobody enjoying it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of cute Lily in this one and the next one explains more about DQ history when I finally get around to writing it. 
> 
> Apologies to all who have been waiting for updates that I have been so absent but I am on the mend I think when it comes to getting back to writing so hopefully there will be movement on other fics as well as this one. 
> 
> Enjoy!

**Lullabies**

**_Granny’s…_ **

 

Ruby spun around when the door jangled open and that now familiar but still nerve wracking smell that was _dragon_ hit Ruby like a lemon wrapped around a brick to the face.

She blinked, caught off guard, when she saw Regina carefully and awkwardly working her way into the diner.

She was holding the door open with her foot and sidling carefully in around the door with her hands and arms full of her…hatchling?

No, that was what they were called when they were still wet from the egg (eww) but it was something else once they were older than that. Cub? No, but it was feline. Kitten? Kits? KITTLING! It was a kittling.

Ruby ignored how knowing what to call the little beast made her feel inordinately better but considering how bizarre the situation was, having something as familiar as the correct noun suddenly seemed very important.

It had been a hell of a month for the Evil Queen and not least of all because her curse had finally been broken and her ‘happy ending’ had come crashing down around her ears.

There had been angry mobs toting pitchforks and Twitter hashtags, Henry bailing on her and then coming back for her, Gold siccing the Wraith on her and then a freaking _dragon_ trashing half the town to get said wraith so she could tear it to shreds and peel Regina’s soul out of its non-corporeal digestive tract to give back to Regina…then that same dragon had turned up with an _egg_ of which Regina was apparently the…father?

No one was really quite caught up on what the hell was going on in Regina’s life and –if her performance with the door was anything to go by- Regina wasn’t all that sure either.

“I got it.”

Regina stiffened in surprise when _Leroy_ –yeah, the dwarf, the aptly named Grumpy, chief supporter and grand poobah of the Off With Her Head society- gripped the door by its handle and swung it wide for Regina to walk into the diner unhindered.

Regina blinked, clearly nonplussed, but recovered herself enough to slink in through the open doorway and stare at Grumpy for a long moment.

“Uh…” Leroy’s mouth worked for long pounding seconds when he seemed to realise belatedly that he had not only acted the gentleman but he had done so for the Evil. Queen.

“Blame Astrid.” He snapped at her and then tugged his hat down low over his brow, marched out the diner and hurried off down the street. His hands stuffed in his pockets and his shoulders hunched. He really hoped that no one else had seen that but he was pretty sure that he could rely on Regina to never, ever, ever, _EVER_ , bring it up again.

“Thank…you?” Regina spoke absently, watching him go and then spun back to brace herself and face the rest of the diner.

She and her child were undeniably the centre of attention.

Not surprising really considering said child was a three foot long dragon kittling that was currently bonelessly sprawled in her arms fast asleep and crooning softly in that adorable way that dragon kittlings did.

Well, Regina thought it was adorable and her opinion was the only one that mattered.

So there.

Summarily ignoring everyone, Regina swept towards the bar, juggled for a moment and managed to clap a _huge_ baby bottle onto the counter.

“Could you ask Granny to fill that, please? She knows what Lily likes.”

Ruby blinked at the plastic bottle with the rubber top on it and then picked it up absently. She remembered Granny mentioning that Regina had come in a couple of times since her short stay at the guesthouse with the ‘cute little thing’, Ruby had been mystified as to why Granny would refer to _anything_ as ‘cute’ let alone the progeny of the Evil Queen (Henry didn’t count, he was adopted). Still, looking at the slumbering ‘Lily’, Ruby had to agree.

For a tiny lizard critter that would probably be capable of killing a full grown man in a matter of months, she was pretty adorable.

She was coiled against Regina’s chest, her head tucked under Regina’s chin and all twenty little claws were hooked into Regina’s powersuit with no regard at all for the thread count or expense of said fabric. Regina, to her credit, didn’t seem to give a damn either. She had Lily’s hind quarters tucked into the crook of her elbow, the little kittling’s wings hugged about her mommy too, grasping at Regina’s shoulders and her long tail –which made up fully half her length- was coiled around Regina’s slim waist.

Lily was paler than Ruby had expected of a dragon kittling. She was a mottled pearl grey colour that shimmered every opalescent colour from her baby soft scales, she had a pink sheen to the scales along her flanks and a gold kind of shimmer to her underbelly. Stumpy little pearlescent horns sprouted from her brows and crowned her head and her big –big- eyes were closed.

This was as close to a dragon as Ruby had ever been and she was quite horrified to find that she wanted to do nothing less than snuggle with the little cutiepie and blow raspberries in her tummy.

Ruby frowned at that uncomfortable notion and endeavoured not to let her affection show.

“Miss Lucas, please?”

“Yeah.” Ruby yanked herself out of her reverie and nodded. “Coffee for you? Double shot?”

“Triple.” Regina nodded gratefully and almost smiled at Ruby. “Actually, forget that. Bring the pot.”

Ruby’s brows shot up but Regina had already turned away, carefully toting her kittling over to her favoured booth and sidling in.

Ruby watched all this for a moment and felt the treacherous tendrils of… _weakness_ begin to grasp at her heart.

No. No way.

Nuh-uh.

She did NOT think that Lily was cute.

She did NOT want cuddles.

And she _certainly_ didn’t want to take a shift at kittling watching just because Regina looked dead on her feet and anyone who looked that tired when they usually looked impeccable had to be on the wrong end of nearly a week without a wink of sleep.

She did not feel sympathy.

She didn’t.

Not even. A little.

Except she did.

A lot.

Still, she pushed her way through the saloon doors to the kitchen and waved the huge scarred industrial grade plastic bottle at Granny.

“Regina’s here, she said you’d know what to do for…Lily?”

“The wee tot’s here?!” Granny brightened considerably from where she stood on the other side of the hotplate and Ruby could only blink.

“Uh…yes?”

“Right. You. Take over here.”

Ruby was hoisted around the hotplate and given the spatula to take over and Granny neatly relieved her of the oversized baby bottle.

Ruby took over the frying and flipping as a matter of course and watched Granny with interest as she went about sourcing Lily’s…meal.

“Oh my god, is that- -?!” Ruby’s face wrinkled in disgust.

“Cow blood.” Granny nodded sagely, pouring the gloopy crimson liquid into the baby bottle to fill it a quarter way up.

“And hot sauce?” Ruby gaped.

“Equal parts.” Granny spoke in a ‘learn this so you can repeat it when I’m not here’ tone. “Then top it all up with double cream.”

“I’m going to hurl.” Ruby pressed her lips together when the smell hit her and scrunched up her nose even more.

“Ye are not.” Granny bustled back over to the hotplate and hip-bumped Ruby out of the way. She swapped spatula for bottle and bid Ruby to shake it thoroughly before giving it to Regina.

“I don’t have to…heat it up or anything?” Ruby gingerly held the bottle filled with ick.

“Herself can see to that.” Granny dismissed it. “Just pour as much coffee down her neck as ye can and get her to eat something. She’s dead on her feet.”

“How…? Why do you care?” Ruby frowned.

Granny scribbled the spatula through the scrambled eggs she was making and twisted her mouth as she mulled that question over.

By all rights, she shouldn’t give a flying fig should the queen be strung up by the nearest scaffold but…

“That girl is many things, but a bad mother isn’t one of them.” Granny finally announced. “She did right by Henry and –despite how the little kittling came about- she’s gearing up to do the same for Lily…who also happens to be the cutest little button I’ve seen since you. Now get, Mama Bear needs her coffee and ye do NOT want Lily to wake up hungry.”

“Uh…okay?” Ruby, still in a state of confusion, took herself off to follow Granny’s instruction.

She snagged the fresh pot of coffee that had just brewed on her way by, scooped up a cup and saucer combo and ambled cautiously over to the table where Regina and family sat.

Rather, where Regina and family slumped.

Regina was tucked into the corner of the booth by the window, her head tilted so that her cheek rested on top of Lily’s pointed little head and both of them appeared to be asleep.

An appearance that ended sharply when Regina’s instincts informed her that she was being watched by someone closer than the gaping dwarf across the diner. Her eyes snapped open and she straightened up, a business look on her face that melted away as soon as she saw that Ruby had come bearing coffee.

“Uh, the whole pot…as ordered.” Ruby bit her lip awkwardly and set the coffee out for Regina and poured the tar thick liquid into the white porcelain.

Regina watched with a hungry glitter in her sleep deprivation hollowed eyes but shifted her attention to the baby bottle as soon as Ruby tentatively set it down within arm’s reach. Regina reached for the bottle sluggishly and Ruby blurted out her offer before she could think better of it.

“I could hold her.”

Regina blinked up at her.

“I mean, while you heat the…milk.” Ruby edged away from naming what was in the bottle and decided that she did NOT want to smell what it was like hot but Lily _was_ really cute. “I mean, uh, she…if she’s not fireproof yet or something?”

“Really?” Regina frowned.

“Is that…a stupid thing to say?” Ruby didn’t sound defensive but she did sound confused. Her being nice to Regina –now that everybody had their memories of who and what Regina really was- was weird for all concerned but she was in it now…

“It’s not stupid.” Regina shook her head slowly, obviously taking a couple of seconds more to process things. “I just didn’t expect it.”

“It’ll also give you time to drink your coffee and eat whatever Granny’s cooking for you.” Ruby bit her lip and wondered where all this was coming from but Regina just looked so _tired_. “She says you gotta eat.”

“Did she now?” Regina would have arched an eyebrow but she honestly didn’t have the energy. “That sounds like a fantastic idea.”

Ruby bumped her fist against her thigh and waited.

Finally Regina nodded.

“You’ll have to sit next to me, she doesn’t like to be far away. If you can’t stomach that then your offer may be rescinded without…” Regina trailed off when Ruby slid into the booth beside her and then held out her hands expectantly.

Regina puzzled that out for a moment and then realised that her brain did not currently offer that service because tired. So she set about carefully peeling Lily away from her to transfer her over to Ruby.

Lily grumbled, big black eyes opening blearily for a moment in query as to why she was being so rudely jostled but then she was pressed to a body almost as warm as her mother’s so she didn’t mind so much. She tucked herself against Ruby but kept her tail hooked around Regina. This was acceptable, it had been much the same the last two days that they had come to this place even if it had been the older one that had cuddled her whilst her mother ate.

“She’s so light.” Ruby murmured and smiled when Lily gave a little croon of sound and coiled herself into Ruby’s body heat.

“Hollow bones.” Regina clapped her hand around the bottle and Ruby could feel the thrum of her magic gently heating the milk.

“I could have done that in the microwave.”

“Dragons can taste technology.” Regina shook her head, curling around her cup of coffee like it was a lifeline. “Lily in particular does not like radiation.”

“Oh.” Ruby blinked and petted Lily. Measuring the little spines that flared from the arch of her neck, just like Maleficent’s did. Her little webbed ears, the so soft leather of her brand new wings.

Good grief, Ruby had offered only to hold her and she was already half in love with the little monster.

“Do you think she can turn human? Or will be able to?”

“It is likely.” Regina sipped on her coffee and rocked the bottle in her hand to heat it evenly. “I imagine I have months yet before that side of her surfaces. Though perhaps not. She is half human after all.”

“Every day’s an adventure, right?” Ruby offered a tentative smile and Regina returned it with the barest curling of her lips and a nod.

“Indeed.”

“How mobile is she?” Ruby searched for something else to say.

“She doesn’t move very much at all right now. ‘Fumbling’ I think is the best word for it. She flexes a lot, testing out her muscles, she is already capable of hanging onto me entirely under her own power so it won’t be long before she’s walking properly…and climbing,” Regina sighed, “and jumping.”

“She’s going to be a handful.” Ruby hummed.

“Two handfuls.” Regina nodded.

“Well,” Ruby floundered a moment more and then forged on, “Granny’s already sold on her and she’ll help and –if she’s gonna then I’m gonna- and Henry’s gonna be all up and down this younger sister business as soon as he can convince Snow and Charming that Maleficent won’t eat him…she won’t, right?”

Regina’s lips curled in that almost smile again, still rocking the bottle in her hand, still heating it.

“Henry is my son, she would no more eat him than she would Lily and –no- dragons do _not_ cannibalise their young. Ever. They are far too precious.”

“Never thought that.” Ruby defended herself quickly. “Not once.”

Regina watched her for a long and blank moment and then finally nodded.

“Breakfast, lunch and dinner.” Granny announced herself with a clatter of the plate she was carrying which did indeed appear to hold all three meals on it.

Regina’s eyes appeared to turn black in a blank kind of hunger and Granny just pushed the plate closer and tumbled a napkin rolled cutlery set down beside it. She relieved Regina of the now simmering bottle of cream/hot sauce/blood goop and foisted it on Ruby.

“Feed the little one.”

With no further words of wisdom, Granny turned away and took herself off to continue running the diner.

Ruby floundered for a moment, not sure how to go about waking up the kittling in her arms and Regina reached out to do it for her. She flicked all three of the feather soft spines on the arch of Lily’s neck and the little dragon wriggled with a grumble, blearily opening her eyes.

Sensing that was her cue, Ruby showed Lily the bottle and was nearly bowled over when Lily pounced on her prey and latched hungrily onto the business end. Only her tail slung around Regina’s waist stopped Ruby from falling off the bench but she righted herself quickly and upended the bottle so Lily could greedily drink down her somewhat noxious meal.

“Gosh, hungry little thing.” Ruby couldn’t help but smile when Lily lifted both forelimbs and grasped at the bottle, scraping the toughened plastic like a kitten kneading at its mother’s side would do. “How much of this will she drink in a day?”

“Right now she’s drinking about seven gallons of the stuff.”

“Seven- -?!” Ruby’s eyebrows shot up. “Your fridge is gotta be _nasty_ right now.”

Regina froze, her fork laden with egg, beef and some kind of fritter, halfway to her mouth.

“I mean…” Ruby backpedalled and Regina huffed a sound that might have been a laugh.

“Gods, it’s awful.” She shook her head. “I have gallon jugs of blood in my fridge. Of _blood_.”

Regina shook her head and gulped some coffee. She went back to eating with such a speed that anyone of lesser breeding would have been ‘shovelling’ the food into their mouths.

Ruby was pretty sure that she wasn’t even chewing half of it.

“Sounds…hectic.” Ruby hedged on what to say. “Does Maleficent not…?”

She clipped her teeth together when Regina gave her a Look. Then she went back to pouring as much food down her neck in the time it would take her daughter to devour the litre and a quarter of milk, blood and hot sauce she was guzzling down because now that she was awake and once she was fed, she would _not_ tolerate being held by someone else when Regina was available.

Except maybe Granny.

As far as Lily was concerned, there was Big Mommy, Soft Mommy, Not Mommy and the peasantry.

Not Mommy was Granny. This other skinny thing that smelled like her and all the rest were The Peasantry.

There was also It.

Lily wasn’t quite sure what to make of It other than he smelled of Soft Mommy and Big Mommy didn’t seem to want to eat him. So It had no category yet other than he existed and did not appear to either be or bring food.

Therefore, not something Lily should concern herself with.

She had seen It only once after all but he stuck out in her memory for some reason so she might pay attention to him later.

Maybe.

If he brought food.

Ruby remained silent, letting Lily feed as much as she wanted and allowing Regina the time to devour half her body weight in eggs, meats and every other fattening thing that Granny could muster. Impressively, Regina managed to eat two thirds of the _gigantic_ platter of food that Granny had put down for her before Lily abandoned her bottle and started fidgeting. She tried to turn in Ruby’s arms, claws scraping and ripping at Ruby’s uniform, though the waitress didn’t really mind, and making short mewling yips of noise.

“I’m here, baby.” Regina abandoned her plate just like that and summoned a tired smile. She didn’t wince when Lily scrambled clumsily onto her mother’s chest and wrapped her wings around Regina’s shoulders.

Regina sighed when Lily, now looking about the diner with interest sparkling in those huge black eyes of hers, clamped her mouth over the collar of Regina’s shirt and gummed it enthusiastically.

“She is ridiculously cute.” Ruby admitted with a smile and Regina returned it with a surprisingly gentle and genuine one of her own.

“A defence mechanism I’m sure.”

“Still adorable.” Ruby shrugged, she lifted her hand and hesitated.

“You can if you like, just don’t rub her the wrong way. She might not have teeth yet but she _can_ bite.”

“I’ll bet she can.” Ruby chuckled and carefully rested her hand on Lily’s back where her little wing met her body.

Lily lifted her head, still chewing on Regina’s shirt and regarded Ruby placidly with her big black eyes.

“Her eyes will pale out when she gets older?”

“It’s likely.” Regina shrugged a shoulder.

“Maybe not. Yours are pretty dark, she might take your colouring.”

Regina blinked, taken by surprise at that.

“If not in her scaly self then probably her human shape, right? I mean, my eyes are much paler than this when I’m the wolf.” Ruby waved at herself with her free hand as she continued to pet Lily. She scraped her fingernails over Lily’s scales with a soft scratch and Lily crooned a kind of purr.

She liked that. Ruby was upgraded from Peasantry to Memorable Peasantry.

“She’s _so_ tiny!” Ruby cooed, letting Lily’s little talon coil around two of her fingers and grip with a surprising strength. “Difficult to believe that her Other Mother is sixty feet long.”

“Maleficent is three thousand years old. She’s had time to get to that size and –even if Lily were to live that long- she might never grow to be as large as Mal. Dragons grow as large as their magic allows and I have seen only one other larger than Mal.”

Ruby raised her eyebrows.

“Smaug.” Regina lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “He was fully a hundred feet long before he was slain.”

“Well…then Lily will have to be at _least_ as big as Maleficent because she’s come from Maleficent and then she has your magic side of the family too so…”

“That’s not always how it works out.” Regina said carefully and Ruby realised that Regina was…worried.

She was worried that her baby –her baby that would grow into a magic/fire/bullet proof death machine on wings- would get hurt.

Ruby felt her heart clench in her chest when she realised that little factoid alone had suckered Ruby clean into the Little Cutie camp alongside Granny.

“Well, _I_ think that’s how it will work out. She comes from good stock, after all.”

Regina raised her eyebrows and Ruby shrugged.

“You both stink of the best kind of magic and you’re improbably attractive, Lily’s gonna be an absolute terror when she grows up in looks alone and let’s not forget who she’s being raised _by_. She’s gonna be fine, Regina. You raised a good kid in Henry all by your bad self, I’m pretty sure you can do it again. Especially with the Dragon of the West on your team.”

“Hmm.” Regina tilted her head down and pressed a kiss to the top of Lily’s head.

Lily released her hold on her mother’s shirt collar and tilted her head up so that she could bite at Regina’s jaw in a kittling kiss.

“Where _is_ Maleficent, anyway?” Ruby frowned and realised that it was a sore subject as soon as the words left her mouth. “Of course, off finding all that cow blood. Must be a full time job, huh?”

“Yes.” Regina offered something of a smile though this one was brittle. “Takes a lot of time to provide for a growing dragon.”

Ruby suddenly felt ten different kinds of awkward and floundered for an excuse to get away from Regina and whatever it is that was going on between her and her child’s…parent.

Henry saved her.

“Mom!”

Regina barely reacted the first time he called out to her and Ruby frowned a little at that.

Usually Regina was honed to a point when it came to Henry but she blinked a little hazily, her eyes looking suspiciously wet, and only focussed entirely on Henry when he slithered to a halt by the booth.

“Hi, mom!” Henry beamed at her and Ruby slid from the booth without needing to be told.

She scooped up Regina’s abandoned plate, poured her another coffee and then retreated to the safety of the bar where she could listen without putting her foot in her mouth.

“Hello, Henry.”

Henry hesitated a moment and then clambered onto the booth bench beside her. He spoke in a quieter tone, ducking his head so that he and Lily were at eye level.

“Hi, Lily.”

Lily blinked languidly at It and the very end of her tail twitched. She felt Soft Mommy’s heart thud hard in her chest and she shifted closer to Soft Mommy in response. Whatever It was doing, Soft Mommy didn’t like it and if she didn’t like it then Lily didn’t either.

She gave an angry ‘ _meep!’_ in Henry’s direction and snorted a tiny plume of smoke.

Regina’s brows rose and she looked down at her kittling with surprise. She was only a few weeks old. She shouldn’t be anywhere _near_ ready to breathe fire.

“Did I do something wrong?” Henry immediately straightened up. “I didn’t mean to frighten her.”

“You didn’t frighten her.” Regina spoke quietly and wrestled with herself.

She was a red hot mess right now. She was just sane enough to recognise that.

She was tired. She was bone tired. It was that everything-is-too-damn-difficult tired. Her brain was taking longer to process things, she felt wobbly and uncertain, she was hungry all the time, juggling a growing dragon kittling, trying to appear strong in front of the whole damn town that now had in insight into her sex life that she’d rather had remained None of Their Damn Business, her daughter’s other mother was nowhere to be fucking seen half the time –which was saying something considering she was over sixty feet long- and she was just _so. Tired._

And now Henry was here.

Henry was here because he had a shiny new something to be interested in and not because he had wanted to see Regina.

Gods, she just wanted to cry.

“You look tired.” Henry frowned. “You look REALLY tired.”

“Thank you.” Regina spoke dryly.

“Sorry, I didn’t,” Henry bit his lip when Lily half lifted her wings and hissed at him, his baby sister didn’t seem to like him very much, “I’ve never seen you look tired before.” He finished lamely.

“Looking after a baby takes a lot of work and dragons don’t sleep very much as it is.” Regina soothed Lily with long drags of her nails over the scales on her back.

Lily shuffled her wings, snorted more smoke at Henry and then resolutely turned her face away under Regina’s chin so she didn’t have to look at him anymore. She grumbled to herself and went back to chewing on Soft Mommy’s shirt collar with a vengeance.

“I can help.” Henry offered immediately and Regina shook her head.

“That’s not a good idea.”

“Why not? She’s my baby sister.” Henry frowned and Regina’s eyes closed as she tried to summon patience.

She bit back the retort that rose to her tongue as hotly as fire would on Mal’s. It was hard, because she was tired and she was hurt and she had been abandoned by everyone she cared about in recent weeks. Henry was gone and Mal was barely ever with her because…because she had locked her in a fucking cage for twenty eight years and now all she wanted was to be free but Lily tied her and Regina together so…

Regina knew that Mal was a dragon and that she needed to be free. She knew that Mal had _despised_ being locked in a cavern for nearly three decades and she had to seriously resent Regina for it but she also knew that Lily never would have hatched had her parents not both had such a strong bond. Though a strong bond could just as easily be hate as it was love –there was a reason that Snow and Regina’s lives had been so entangled for so long- but Mal had certainly _seemed_ affectionate in recent weeks (very affectionate at times and often at inopportune moments…preferably on the hallway floor for some reason) but there was a difference between affection and love.

Regina had been more than a little irritable to realise that she was completely headlong in love with Maleficent AND their daughter and she just didn’t know what to do if dragon hearts didn’t feel the same way that human hearts did about such things.

What if Mal was attached to Regina only in a purely animal way?

What if Lily just viewed her as the creature that looked after her? Would she always look at Mal, a fellow dragon, as more her own kin than Regina herself?

Regina was just so tired.

Lily mewled and rubbed her pearly little brow horns against Regina’s chin, sensing her mother’s distress and trying to help in whichever small way she could. An impression of pink affection and softness bloomed in Regina’s mind from Lily and Regina smiled a little.

 Lily wouldn’t learn words for probably about a year but she could project.

Pictures and feelings mostly. Bursts of colour that translated into emotions. Simple sketchy ideas of her thoughts that were big and simple to communicate her needs. Needs that were easily met so long as Regina could snatch enough sleep between the scant naps that Lily took. 

Gods, she was tired.

“Kid, I told you not to heckle.”

Regina blearily opened her eyes when Swan’s voice reached her.

“Hey, Regina.” Emma spoke tentatively and sidled into the opposite bench of the booth. She cleared her throat and smiled a little uncertainly. “How’s things?”

Regina could only blink in response. Her thoughts and feelings on how ‘things’ were or might be were too jumbled and incoherent to voice, never mind to the Saviour that had turned her life so effectively upside down so that _things_ were even worse than they could be.

Except…except without Swan, Regina never would have seen Mal again. She’d never have known about Lily or seen her hatch or held her in her arms and…

…and she would _not_ cry!

“Fine.” She spoke firmly. Maybe if Emma believed it, she would too.

“Uh…huh.” Emma was obviously not convinced. She glanced at Henry and bit her lip. “Henry’s missed you.”

Regina turned her head to look at Henry and blinked languidly. Her brain should be doing something right now. Formulating a witty retort or regimenting her facial expression or _something_ but all of its processing power (scant reserves though they were) was focussed on staying awake and not breaking down in the middle of the diner because she was _stronger_ than that.

“Huh.” She managed after a moment when she realised that she had to say SOMETHING.

“Regina.” Emma spoke firmly and it took the other woman a long moment to realise that she had to turn to see Emma again. She waited until Regina’s attention was focussed on her and tried something different. “What day is it?”

Regina frowned and mulled that over.

Seriously? The supposed Saviour could break curses but she couldn’t read a calendar?

“It’s today.” Regina shrugged a shoulder and Emma’s eyes slid to meet Henry’s when he cast a worried look at her.

“I have an idea,” Emma faltered a moment when no disparaging remark about her intelligence or lack thereof came from Regina, “why don’t we go back to the manor and you can show Henry Lily’s nursery? He’s been dying to see it.”

It took Regina long moments to process that and Emma was beginning to realise why Granny had been so insistent on the phone that Emma get there with Henry _now_. If anyone was going to have a chance of getting through to Regina, it was going to be Henry and –for reasons known only to Granny- Emma.

Still, they were there now and it looked like Granny was right.

Regina would have flambéed anyone else that came close and demanded visitation rights but Henry seemed to still occupy in that grey No Kill zone in Regina’s head and Emma was somehow inveigled in there too because Henry was so attached to her.

Oh yeah, Emma was glad Granny had called. She had never seen a woman more in dire need of a nap than Regina right at that moment and the last thing she needed was a woman of confirmed power and already questionable sanity going crazy from lack of sleep.

“Why do you want to see it?” Regina finally managed to join the conversation again and spoke to Henry.

“Because she’s my baby sister.” Henry hunched his shoulders in a shrug. What other reason did he need?

“Are you sure? Be certain _now_ , Henry. I might be able to tolerate being rejected in favour of your ‘real’ family, but I’ll not suffer the same thing to happen to Lily. She doesn’t deserve that.”

Emma’s eyebrows rose and Henry’s mouth actually dropped open.

“I didn’t…”

“Yes.” Regina nodded a little drunkenly. “You did. Several times. What happened between last week and this week that has made me suddenly redeemable? Mal’s a villain too, surely evil to the core, why should our child be anything different?” Regina’s eyes suddenly blazed with purple magic and her head pivoted to lance Emma with a glare. “If you have come to _save_ another child of mine, I will rip you to pieces and feed them to my mate.”

“Whoa!” Emma held up her hands. “We’re just nosy. Just wanted to see how the little sprog was doing and what kind of baby toys she doesn’t have so we don’t buy doubles. Right, kid? Henry. _Right?_ ” Emma spoke forcibly when he could only gape at Regina.

He seemed to realise exactly what he had done to his mother every time he had rejected her and Emma’s jaw clenched when she saw the shame creep over him.

Regina frowned, not understanding why she was so upset about this conversation but cognisant that she wanted it to be over.

“Baby toys?”

“For sure.” Emma nodded and waved to Lily, chewing on Regina’s shirt collar again. “Lookit the cute little kidney bean, how can we not spoil her? I’d bet she’s got _heaps_ of toys already but a gift from her big brother and…Auntie Emma has to be special, right?”

Regina frowned a little and the cogs that were still turning in her head couldn’t really read much wrong with that logic. It sounded stupid –so perfectly fitting with what she had come to expect from Swan- but it _did_ seem like a thing that Henry might want to do.

He was kind like that.

To other people. Not to her.

She didn’t deserve kindness after all the things she had done.

“Regina,” Emma’s gentle but firm voice got through to her, “why don’t we go back to the manor and Henry can get to know his little sister a bit? He wants to be there. Don’t you want that?”

Regina thought that over.

She did want that but wasn’t there something that had stopped her from…?

“I’ll drive you in the Bug.” Emma was nodding, she slipped out of the booth and helped Regina out of her side so that she could totter up into a standing position.

She knew better than to try and take the dragon kittling away from her even if Regina did look a half inch from just falling face first into the diner floor. She herded Regina towards the door, Henry following behind, and looked over to catch Ruby’s eye.

“Find Maleficent. Do it now and get her to the manor.” She knew that Ruby would hear her perfectly even if her voice was barely above a whisper.

Ruby nodded and moved off to tell Granny she had a dragon to track.

Even if she did think it was ridiculous that she was on team Little Cutie after ten minutes of holding the little monster.

Totally ridiculous.

Though if she carried on being ridiculous in the right manner maybe she’d get to kittling sit in the future because that would be pretty cool…

 

**_The Manor…_ **

 

“Why don’t you siddown and I’ll make you some more coffee?” Emma subtly wafted Regina towards the couch and had absolutely no intention of giving Regina any more stimulants of any kind.

“You don’t know where…”

“I got it.” Emma waved it off and then took her head in her hands and bodily pushed Regina down onto the couch.

It was both alarming and relieving when Regina just folded down onto the cream coloured couch with a soft thump.

Lily watched all of this with amusement and shifted happily in her mother’s hold. She looked about the living room and nuzzled at Regina’s chin every so often but otherwise made no effort to leave Regina’s side.

This was a Safe Place and she was allowed to wander but she rarely did. She didn’t like being away from the warmth of Soft Mommy so she stayed where she was.

“Hey, kid, why don’t you go upstairs and have a look at some of Lily’s toys? See what the competition is.” Emma spoke to Henry and mimed a pillow and blanket.

Henry nodded, catching on with a worried look at the back of his mom’s head and hurried up the stairs to find something to wrap his mom in. He very deliberately put his shoes, his backpack and his jacket out of the way. There was a baby in the house now. He didn’t want his mom or even Maleficent to trip and fall, especially not when they were carrying Lily.

It took him mere moments to find which room his mom had turned into a nursery for Lily. It was the only new door in the hallway after all.

He didn’t know how to feel about his mom using magic again but –once he stepped inside- he couldn’t hold it against her.

It was _beautiful_.

Everything was made of stone, that was the first thing, but considering a lot of it was already scratched up, that made sense. There were three fireplaces all roaring with different colours of fire; green, purple and blue, so the room was _hot._ There was a sort of basin carved into floor and Henry dropped down onto his heels when he found it was filled with some kind of shale. Closer inspection revealed it to be…shell. Lily’s egg had been crushed down into broken little flakes and the little –what had Ruby called her?- kittling slept on them.

Shiny things were strewn everywhere. Not necessarily valuable things though there were certainly jewels and gold and who knew what other kinds of metal that Henry couldn’t even name. There were polished pennies and quarters mixed in with the egg shell shale in Lily’s crib, diamonds studded the walls and floor, a lot of his mom’s jewellery was embedded in the stone too and Henry supposed that must be so Lily couldn’t chew on it and maybe choke on it.

Fairy lights were strewn all around the ceiling some of them flashing and some of them just emitting a soft glow. Crystal mobiles hung and twirled slowly in the hot air given off by the fires, but there were strings of old CDs spinning to bounce little rainbows of light off the wall. 

But there were pots and pans that had been shone to a high sheen, bits of what looked to be plate armour that had been broken or maybe…chewed and big purple and black shapes. Scales. Maleficent’s scales littered the floor and…blue feathers too.

His mom’s? Emma had mentioned something about his mom turning into a hippogriff?

Was she blue?

Henry picked up one of the blue feathers. It was as long as his hand, a brilliant blue green in colour and it felt –even just sitting in his palm- as if it was alive. He was certain that it was his mom’s, from whatever she looked like as a hippogriff, because he could feel that part of her that was just the _idea_ of Regina that came off the feather like heat came off everything else in here.

He looked about himself for something that might be a toy for a baby dragon and he came across…of course.

Henry laughed and picked up the little tyre. It looked like it had come from a kiddies tricycle –maybe even his old one- but then the tread was very thick and it was heavier than he had expected it to be so maybe it was a normal tyre that had been shrunk down.

Looking up around the room, Henry knew that it had all been done with magic but…it didn’t feel bad. Magic had been billed to him as evil up until now but…if his mom had been magical when he was a baby he had no doubt that she’d have made him a nursery as awesome as this even if it hadn’t been as shiny.

Henry pressed his lips together and was daunted by all the making up he had to do…but not giving up. He would never give up on his mom.

He had done that once and it had hurt her so badly and he was _never_ going to hurt her that way again.

And he was going to start by getting his baby sister to like him.

Henry picked up the little tyre and rose to his feet. He looped it over his forearm and slipped through the passageway between his mom’s room and Lily’s nursery. It was a kind of diagonal tunnel that didn’t precisely put a door between Lily and her moms but did keep the light and heat from one room from bleeding into the other.

He went still when he saw the changes that had happened in his mom’s bedroom between him leaving and Maleficent moving in.

He had known, academically, that there had to be _something_ between his mom and Maleficent. Babies didn’t just come about by accident (well, maybe they did but… _he_ knew what he meant). Still, to be confronted with the reality that his mom’s bed was now his mom and Maleficent’s bed was a little…strange.

Much of it was the same. Blue was still the predominant colour. Though the bed was bigger and made of a more solid black wood inlaid with silver or polished steel. Crystals hung in the window to sparkle light against the walls though they were less numerous than those in the nursery, there were thick furs strewn over the huge bed, more pillows and the whole room seemed more cluttered if not messy.

There were more bottles and jars on the vanity, the mirror was bigger and more elaborate. All of the furniture was made of that blackened wood and inlaid with that metal, there were accents of purple here and there, more mirrors hung on the walls and there were little…collections of things piled here and there.

One was a stack of books. Old leather bound books with letters on the spine that he didn’t recognise alongside kids’ books…Henry’s brows rose when he realised that Maleficent must be learning to read English. It made sense, he supposed and he thought it was kind of…cute that his mom would teach her.

Maybe she’d let him teach Lily when she was old enough.

There were yet more piles of collected things. One was water smoothed stones from the beach, a collection of coins, another of knives and yet another of…feathers.

Blue, black and white feathers.

His mom’s feathers.

These were piled neatly on the bedside table alongside the rest of the little collections that Henry took to be Maleficent’s side of the bed and they were nearest to the bed like Maleficent wanted them closest to her and saw them as the most precious.

At least, that was Henry wanted to believe that meant.

He was tempted to take one for himself, a way to keep a piece of his mom close no matter what but that seemed somehow wrong when he had rejected her so often in the past and he didn’t want to do wrong by his mom anymore.

If she offered him one, he would take it, but he’d never ask for one.

He realised he was going to have to start earning anything she wanted to give him. He wasn’t going to take her for granted anymore.        

She deserved better of him.

Henry shook himself out of such thoughts and lifted his fingers from tracing over a feather no bigger than his little finger and turned his attention to what he was supposed to be doing.

He stole a pillow from the bed and rummaged beneath the furs until he found the duvet and then he grunted with the effort of hauling that out from under all the other bedclothes and bundling it into his arms. It was kingsize so he looked more like a duvet monster with Henry shaped legs poking out of the bottom of it but he managed to get it and himself down the stairs without incident in time to find Emma talking his mom into drinking something.

“Well I didn’t know where the coffee was.” Emma shrugged and doggedly held the glass out to Regina. “So milk it is.”

Regina scowled at Emma but accepted the glass when her manners reminded her that Emma had gone to all the effort of heating the milk and surely that must be taxing to her limited mental faculties. She sipped the milk and deliberately kept it away from Lilly when the kittling perked up at the familiar scent of hot dairy.

“No hot sauce in it, sweetie. You wouldn’t like it.” Regina smiled and let Lily sniff the glass, smiling when her daughter wrinkled her snout and snorted in disgust at such bland fare.

“Oof!” Henry nearly fell on the couch himself when he dumped the duvet and the pillow onto the edge of the sofa. “I thought you might want these in case Lily got cold. ‘Cause she’s a lizard?”

“Dragons are not lizards. In truth they are more like birds and cats.” Regina told him. “Their fire keeps them thermo-regulated.”

“Well, just in case then.” Henry scooped up the pillow and dumped it by the arm of the couch closest to Regina and scrunched the duvet closer to her so they were within easy reach.

“You find out what toys we have to compete with?” Emma brightly changed the subject.

“Just this.” Henry looped the little tyre from around his arm and held it out to Emma.

“ _Mreep!”_ Lily chirped suddenly and struggled to be free of Regina so she could get to her toy.

“You want this?” Henry pounced on his opportunity and slunk closer to his baby sister and held the tyre out to her.

“Lily- -!” Regina tried to catch the kittling but she was too slow.

Lily propelled herself from Regina’s lap and into Henry’s arms with a scrambling of her legs and a clumsy flap of her wings. She latched her claws into the material of Henry’s school uniform sweater and clamped her jaws around the tyre, chewing enthusiastically.

Henry laughed, rocking back to balance himself and Lily and held the tyre so that she could maul it ineffectively.

Regina relaxed when she saw all was well and her heart gave a small squeeze when she saw her two children together even if they did look so different.

“She’s really strong!” Henry laughed, tugging gently at the tyre and grinning when Lily gave adorable little growls and tried to keep it to herself. It was not truly in a dragon’s nature to share.

Regina sipped her milk and sat back against the couch. Content to watch her children play together. Henry laughed at Lily’s antics as she tried repeatedly to steal the tyre from him. He tugged back, stronger than her for now, and didn’t seem bothered by the way his sweater ripped a little at the grip of Lily’s claws or the way her wings and tail thrashed.

It was actually very cute and the relief that coursed through Regina when she saw that Henry wasn’t at all disgusted or alarmed by his sibling made her feel giddy.

For the first time in days, something in Regina unclenched and she truly relaxed for a moment.

She would take Lily back in a minute. Instruct Henry on how to hold her so that he didn’t tire too quickly. Try and make it clear that Henry’s skin wasn’t as resistant to Lily’s claws as she was. In a minute. Just a minute…

Emma neatly relieved Regina of her half empty glass of milk and gently caught Regina as she gave up fighting her exhaustion and slumped sideways on the couch. She lowered the other woman down so she could rest her head on the pillow Henry had brought down for her, slipped her ridiculous shoes off and generally tucked her in so she was all nice and cosy-like.

She had no doubt that Regina would be furious when she woke up that Emma had taken such liberties as to dare _tuck her in_ but she needed Regina on form.

Emma seemed to be the only damn person in this entire nutball town that had realised that no one was actually _running_ the town and she needed Regina to do that. She needed a _conscious_ Regina to do that and if that required a warm milk and naptime intervention and a tongue lashing later then Emma was just going to have to deal.

Regina was dimly aware of what was going on but her body had made the unilateral decision that unconsciousness was a fantastic idea right now and the next time she could tune back into scheduled programming would be after a REM cycle thank you very much.

So she slept.

“Do you think she’s getting tired?”

Regina’s eyes fluttered open with effort – she’s wasn’t tired at all, she was awake!

She frowned blearily when she saw the living room had been somewhat rearranged and that the subject of the discussion was not her.

The furniture had all been pushed back to leave the main floor as open as possible and Emma and Henry sat opposite one another rolling Lily’s tyre back and forth between them.

The little kittling squeaked and fumbled after it, clumsily chasing despite the lack of coordination or practice at such things but gamely trying anyway. She pounced at the tyre and mauled it whenever she caught it but then released it a few seconds later and waited for Emma or Henry to send it rolling again.

She was playing _with_ them and it made Regina smile.

“She doesn’t seem to be. Then again, from what I’ve heard, she seems to do a lot of sleeping when your mom isn’t. She’s probably got energy to spare, not to mention all that high fat gunk she drinks and who knows how much magic your mom is feeding her on top of that.”

“You think mom’s giving her magic?”

Regina frowned. Was she? She couldn’t remember. She felt sleep pulling at her again but rallied to stay awake. She should be supervising.

“I think so.” Emma nodded. “I was kind of under the impression that magic should make your mom go on and on like the Energizer Bunny. If she’s not then maybe she’s giving it to Lily to keep her going because the little sprog certainly doesn’t seem to feel tired, do ya, you adorable little ball of sharp and pointy!”

Emma cooed for Lily who reared up and latched onto the tyre that Emma held over her head, balancing on her tail and flapping her wings when Emma refused to give in and let her win right away.

Regina slept again with a smile on her face.

“Ouch!”

Regina stiffened to wakefulness sometime later and tried to rally herself to an upright position and only gave in when she saw that no limbs were hanging off anyone.

“Well that’s what you get for letting her climb your face.” Emma gave a low and exasperated growl as she dabbed gently at Henry’s face with a disinfectant wipe.

“I didn’t want to push her away.” Henry scrunched up his face at the sting of having the small cut under his eye cleaned but didn’t yelp again.

“Stop that, Lily.” Emma spoke gently to the kittling and tried to herd her off with a gentle elbow against her flank.

“She’s just trying to help.” Henry defended her.

“Yes with a mouth full of who knows what bacteria and a sandpaper tongue.” Emma took Henry by the chin and frowned a little when the cut still continued to ooze a little blood.

“She’s not dirty!”

“Neither am I, but I still wouldn’t lick your face to clean a cut. I’ll admit that she’s really adorable, Henry, but five of her six ends are still really pointy and you’re not as tough as your mom is with all the hoodoo she’s put into her skin to keep from becoming Lily’s scratching post. Lily is adorable just now but she’s only going to get stronger and harder as she grows and that cuteness is all well and good until she goes all Clever Girl on your ass.” Emma scowled and nudged the ever helpful Lily away with her arm again when the kittling tried again to lick Henry’s face and kiss better the hurt she’d inflicted on him.

“I don’t understand that reference.” Henry scowled right back.

“Kid, I gotta introduce you to Spielburg.” Emma sighed and set aside the bloodied wipes out of Lily’s reach. She moved on to peeling the backing off a plaster to seal up the cut on his face. “You want to tell me why you’re being so weird around Lily?”

“I’m not being weird!” Henry snapped and Lily sank down into a crouch, going very still and quiet in an entirely instinctual reaction. Henry was immediately panicked and contrite. “I’m sorry, Lily. Let me…”

Emma rocked back down onto her backside with her legs folded in front of her and scooped up Lily so that she could coil between them. She ruthlessly held the kittling hostage against her son’s silence and raised an eyebrow.

 Henry hunched his shoulders and prodded his fingers against the plaster on his face.

“You’re being weird.” Emma told him firmly. “Talk.”

Henry was stubborn, he had learned from Regina after all, but he looked down at Lily and realised his pride meant very little.

“I need her to like me.” He blurted. “She’s gotta like me.”

“Henry, she’s a baby, if you bring her food or play with her, she’ll love you to the end of time.” Emma shrugged her shoulders and waved at the way Lily was trying to climb her like a tree. “Look, she barely knows me and she’s all up and down my business.”

“But I’m her brother!” Henry looked torn. “I’m supposed to be family and…” Henry’s shoulders slumped and he looked down at the carpet.

“And you want Regina to be your family again?”

Henry lifted his head and Regina closed her eyes to feign sleep. She wanted to hear where this conversation was going.

“Yeah.” Henry’s voice was quiet. “I was so mean and horrible and I pushed her away so much…I didn’t want…I just wanted her not to be evil and I was so confused and all the stuff in the book…” Henry sniffed and scrubbed at his face.

Lily mewled and Emma let her go. She watched the kittling totter across the distance between them to clamber clumsily up onto Henry’s lap trying to be careful not to scratch him again but also trying to hold onto the difficult terrain of Henry’s legs and chest.

“I didn’t know if she loved me. Really loved me and then I realised that didn’t matter because _I_ loved her and I could do it enough for both of us and teach her how if I had to and then…then Lily and Maleficent came along and I realised that she must have loved me all along if she could love Maleficent enough to make Lily hatch and…”

“And you realised how much you hurt her?” Emma asked gently and Henry nodded, tears dripping from his chin onto Lily’s nose. This time Emma didn’t protest when Lily licked at Henry’s chin to try and clean them away.

“I don’t know how to make it up to her but I’m so used to being sneaky that I figured if I could get Maleficent and Lily to like me then maybe mom would let me close enough to try and get her to forgive me, I guess.”

“Kid, you’re such a dork.” Emma shook her head on a laugh and Henry scowled at her. “Your mom loves you so much that she didn’t hurt me because it would hurt you. She’s not going to forgive you because as far as she’s concerned there’s nothing to forgive. You think it doesn’t hurt her that she knows she made you doubt her? Considering how alike you two are, she’s probably convinced that she has to beg and scrape to get you to forgive her too.”

Regina gave a bit of a fuzzy frown at that. She did not _beg_ and _scrape_ …though she would admit that –if she was ever going to- Henry would be the one she would do it for.

“You really think so?” Henry asked hopefully and gently pushed Lily’s claws away from his face when she tried to reach up and pet him.

“Yeah. I really think so. Both of you have gone against everything you believed to protect the other. She admitted the curse was real to me to save your life and you insisted that we come here and save her ass from the angry mob despite you still being half convinced that she was the Queen of All Evility.” Emma clapped her hands onto her knees and hunched her shoulders in a shrug. “I can’t really say I understand it but I do know love when I see it. Just,” Emma held up her hand quickly, “don’t tell Mary Margaret, I can do without the Hallmark quotes.”

Henry gave a watery smile and huffed out a breath, feeling a bit better. His eyes landed on the bloodied wipes and Elastoplast backings crumpled on the floor.

“We should clean up.”

“I got it, you keep playing with her so she doesn’t worry about why you’re upset. Just be careful not to get caught on her business end again, okay?”

“Okay.” Henry caught the tyre when Emma rolled it towards him again and fell into a happy game of tug-o’-war with Lily with it.

Regina was asleep again before Emma had even gathered up all the first aid supplies.

_“Mreep! Mreep!”_

Regina forced her eyes open when she recognised Lily’s hungry voice. She managed to get as far as lifting her head before she recognised the somewhat heinous scent of chillied cow’s blood and hot cream that was apparently everything a growing kittling needed.

“You _sure_ this is what Granny said to give her?” Henry looked up at Emma as Lily danced around their feet, bounding up ineffectually against their legs to try and get to her meal that they were so rudely holding out of reach.

“This is the recipe and all the stuff was in the fridge.” Emma shrugged and gratefully foisted the hot plastic bottle filled with the marbled red and pink cream into Henry’s oven mitted hands. “God, it stinks.”

“ _MREEP!”_ Lily reminded them forcibly of their presence and Henry caved.

“Alright, alright, it’s coming.” Henry sank down on his heels and held the bottle out to her.

Lily reared up, balancing on her tail and latched her mouth onto the rubber teat of the bottle, suckling noisily from it.

“Well, she seems to like it.” Henry settled down onto the floor, careful not to dislodge Lily from her dinner.

“Bizarre.” Emma agreed, her hands on her hips, as she watched one sibling feed the other. She stiffened as something seemed to occur to her. “Where does she go when she needs to…go?”

“What?” Henry’s snapped up so he could stare at her with equal horror. “But…”

“It’s not like she’s wearing a nappy!” Emma waved at the kittling.

“Mom didn’t seem worried.” Henry hedged.

“Because she was conscious and presumably knows what goes on at that end.” Emma pointed at Lily’s tail.

“Um…newspapers?”

“You really want your mom to wake up and find we’ve been treating Mills Cub Number Two as a puppy?”

“You really want her to wake up to a pile of steaming and possibly on fire dragon poop on the cream carpet?”

“Newspapers it is.” Emma clapped her hands together and wandered off to find them.

Though it was a little concerning that everything flammable appeared to have been removed from anywhere a kittling might get to it…

The next time Regina awoke she felt much better, still dog tired, but perhaps able to sit up under her own power. She thought about doing just that but then she felt Lily shift in the circle of her arms and croon a little purr.

Looking down at her kittling, Regina smiled and stroked her baby’s neck spines. Lily coiled tighter in on herself in Regina’s arms and nuzzled her head deeper into the crook of Regina’s neck. Regina could feel the damp of Lily chewing on her shirt collar again but she could never summon much vitriol over the destruction of yet another shirt.

She wondered what had woken her because it hadn’t been Lily being tucked under the duvet with her but _something_ had disturbed her because she was awake when she would still rather not be.

“Well?!”

Regina’s brows rose when she heard Henry speak. Not only that but he was annoyed.

“Well what?” Mal’s voice was cool and indifferent in response to Henry’s palpable anger.

“Where have you been?!” Henry hissed, trying to stay quiet but it was a losing battle. He was apparently very irritable with Maleficent.

“I fail to see what business that is of yours.” Mal dismissed him and Regina could hear her moving, coming closer to the couch Regina lay on. She also heard Henry’s feet patter into Mal’s path and the dragon grind to a halt with a snort of indignant annoyance. “Brat, you’re in my way.”

“It’s my business because my mom’s _exhausted!_ She’s been looking after Lily all by herself and she’s so tired that she let me and Emma help!”

Mal was caught off guard for a moment by that and then hauled the armour of her disdain on as a matter of course.

“By spreading fodder for a fire over the floor. Some help.”

“At least I’ve been _here_!” Henry snapped.

“Yes, now that something new and shiny has come along for you to fawn over. What’s the matter? Was your mother’s heart not a precious enough treasure? Are your affections really so transient as they appear?”

“If I was lucky enough to be here with my mom again I wouldn’t be leaving her to look after Lily all by herself! She’s tired and she needs sleep and you’re never HERE! What’s so important that you have to be gone all the time?!”

“That is none of your affair.” Mal’s voice held a dangerous note of finality to it but Henry either didn’t hear or chose to ignore it.

“It is when it’s my mom that’s suffering! I abandoned her once, I won’t do it again!”

“I am rather curious as to how you think you shall have a choice in the matter.” Mal’s voice was soft, she was close to snapping then. “Intruding on a dragon’s nest is a bad idea at the best of times, least of all when it involves coming between said dragon and her mate and child.”

“You don’t scare me.”

“The stupidity is hereditary then.”

“Someone needs to be here.” Henry wouldn’t back off. “If you’re too busy flying around and ignoring mom to get back at her because of the whole cave thing then- -!”

Henry was cut off suddenly by a rush of movement and a squeak of surprise from him.

Regina knew from Emma’s shout of protest that Mal had hold of Henry and it wasn’t in the interest of cuddles. She laboured to sit up and her mouth twisted in an unimpressed expression when she saw that Mal had Henry by the scruff of his sweater and held him several inches off the floor so her sharp teeth were bared in his face, green magic sparking from her eyes.

“Do not insult me!” Mal snarled. “You know nothing of me nor your mother nor how deeply my affection for her runs! If we were not bound by love then Lily would not have come to be and that is a gift that I shall never cease to be grateful for. There is nothing to ‘get back’ at your mother for and- -!”

“You know,” Regina began conversationally and propped her elbow on the back of the couch, “you’ll never be able to convince me that you ate him by accident if you keep up all the yelling.”

Mal’s fingers snapped wide and Henry yelped as he was unceremoniously dropped on his rump.

“My love…” Mal pulled a smile from somewhere and Regina’s arched brow cut her off at the pass even if something warm squirmed through her at Mal calling her such.

 Mal cleared her throat and looked away, very sheepish for a force of nature. She gave a good impression of having been caught with her claws in the cookie jar. When she did finally speak, it was sullen.

 “He provoked me.”

“Mal, there are _armies_ that have failed to provoke you.”

“Armies don’t _matter_.” Mal’s voice was petulant but Regina smiled despite that.

It was good to hear that she mattered even if it did come at the cost of her mate very nearly throttling her son. She hoped this was just teething problems and they would grow to like one another but she would make it work even if they didn’t. It would be a hassle because she loved them both but she would do it…because she loved them both.

“Henry,” Regina turned her attention to her son, “I know that I never actively taught you not to prod a sleeping dragon –or even a dragon when it is doing anything- but it seems like common sense.”

“She still hasn’t explained where she’s been and why she’s been leaving you alone.” Henry sounded just as petulant and dusted off the seat of his pants as he stood.

“It’s a surprise.” Mal snarled.

“She’s been nesting.” Regina rocked her head sideways to rest on the back of the couch and Mal looked caught again. “Oh, because I’m not going to put a dragon with a new kittling that needs a nest and you coming home covered in dirt that may well have come from building said nest together?”

Mal huffed a snort of green smoke and Regina smirked.

“You’ve been…building a house?” Henry looked tentatively up at Mal.

She hissed at him.

“Mal.” Regina arched a brow and Mal snorted another plume of green smoke.

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you ask for help if it’s taking you so long?”

Mal’s eyes snapped wide and she rounded on Henry with a deep and guttural hiss that lowered into a thunderous growl.

The sound startled Lily awake and she mewled in alarm.

Just like that, Mal dropped her threat display and hurried over to the couch. She looked down at Regina and Lily together with that smug self-satisfied look that she always had when she realised she had won a family for herself and they were beautiful and then she bent to take Lily from Regina, being sure to press a kiss to Regina’s mouth as she did.

“Why don’t you go out and sun her for a bit?” Regina suggested gently and Mal –despite knowing she was being handled- acquiesced to the request with only a token grumble.

She trailed her claws over the sweep of Regina’s cheekbone as farewell and then took herself off to take their daughter outside so she could feel the sun on her soft little scales.

“I’m going to…do something elsewhere.”

Emma excused herself when she realised she was not required for this mother-son discussion and it was long overdue.

Regina swung her legs down so she could sit upright on the couch and patted the duvet beside her.

Henry padded over and dropped down to sit beside her.

“I keep doing stuff wrong.”

“Yes.” Regina nodded and rested her hand on his shoulder to soften that. “Though that’s hardly your fault since…”

Regina trailed off into nothing when he shimmied backwards on the couch and tucked himself into her side. She was still for a long moment until she felt him tense at her pointed non-reception of him. She settled her arm over his shoulders and he seemed to relax.

“You just don’t know how to deal with dragons, sweetie.” Regina pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “And you shouldn’t feel too bad about that since most people are eaten before they can get to know one enough not to make mistakes like that.”

“What did I do?”

“Well, first you accused her of abandoning her family and that’s never a good idea.” Regina rested her chin on top of his head. “Then you made it sound like she couldn’t look after us herself and that…wouldn’t make anyone happy.”

“I guess…I was mad at her because she seemed to be doing what I’d done to you.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“You are?” Henry twisted to look up at her.

“Well, lying to you all the time was horrible. As was making you think you were crazy but I was scared and mad and I felt like…Emma was telling me that I couldn’t look after you myself.”

“Oh.” Henry hadn’t thought of it that way.

“And, if you hadn’t broken the curse, I wouldn’t have found Mal again nor would Lily ever have hatched so…it wasn’t all horrible.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I abandoned you.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you too, sweetheart.” Regina hugged him tighter and huffed out a breath when Henry returned the embrace so tightly that her lungs were forced to empty. He loosened his hold.

“Sorry.”

“That’s alright.” Regina smiled and rubbed his shoulder. “I suppose you’re a bit out of practice.”

“Yeah.” His voice was small and she waited for him to ask whatever it was he wanted to keep to himself but still needed an answer for. “Mom?”

“Mm-hmm?”

“Do…do you think you can still love me a little bit? Even if you have Lily and Maleficent now?”

“Oh, Henry!” Regina nearly laughed, that had been a better question than she had been expecting.

She had NO desire to explain the mechanics behind where eggs came from to her son just yet.

Ever, actually.

She gripped him by the chin and lifted his head so he had to look her in the eye.

“It’s not either or, Henry. Never. I love you, you are my son, I will always love you. Lily is my baby but so are you and you always will be before you start railing about being a big boy. Even when Lily is fifty feet long and can breathe fire, she will be my baby and I love Mal in a way that is different to that. There isn’t a limit as to how many people you can love, honey. Do you love me less because you have Emma now?”

“No!” Henry told her with a flattering speed and vehemence. “I still love you, you’re still my mom even if I didn’t come from…you.”

“Then what are you worried for?”

“I thought I’d hurt you too much and…the book made it sound like you didn’t know how to love and…that sounds pretty stupid now.”

“There is more to me than the book, Henry.”

“I know.”

“Good.”

“Wonderful, heart to heart done.” Mal announced her presence, padding into the room to stand over them. She looked down at Henry and jerked her head towards the front door. “Now leave.”

“Mal…” Regina huffed out a sigh.

“Don’t ‘Mal’ me.” The blonde bared her teeth a little. “The brat…is right. You are exhausted and I have not done as I should. So he’s going away. Now. So I can put you to bed.”

“I’m comfortable here.”

“I want him to go away.”

“No!” Regina’s eyes went comically wide. “Really?!”

Mal snorted more green smoke.

“You are mine.”

“And he is mine.” Regina shot back and Mal scowled.

“It is well documented that you have made poor choices in the past.”

Regina arched an eyebrow to let her mate know that she was skating close to the edge and Mal hissed her displeasure. She scraped her nails over the scales on Lily’s back to earn a croon from her daughter and scowled at Henry.

“Go away.”

“Why? You’ve got more practice.” Henry’s chin jutted in stubbornness and Regina’s brows rose. That had been wicked, even for Henry.

“You can _both_ learn to share.” She told them firmly. “I love you both and I am not choosing between you so you are going to have to adjust to that idea before I decide I like Lily more than I like either of you.”

It was an idle threat and both Mal and Henry knew it but they recognised that Regina was serious about this.

Still, an only child (well, until a week ago) and a dragon weren’t exactly designed for _sharing_.      

“You had best improve.” Mal told Henry firmly. “Quickly.”

“As fast as you do.” Henry shot back without hesitation and Mal curled a lip at him but didn’t snarl.

She would never admit it, but she was beginning to see the resemblance between Regina and Henry. Perhaps one day she might even grow to feel more than a reluctant tolerance of him.

But that was not to be today.

“Fine. _You_ may stay. The other one _must_ go.”

One outsider was Mal’s limit –even though her tolerance for Emma was higher than that for others since she had aided Mal’s escape from the cavern- one interfering mortal at a time was still one too many as far as Mal was concerned. If she HAD to put up with Henry then she would but she was not above using her mate’s dislike of Emma to her advantage.

“I can stay?” Henry twisted to look at Regina and she shrugged a shoulder.

“If Emma will allow it.” The words were stilted but she forced them out.

“I’ll go tell her!” Henry bounded up off the couch and ran towards the front door that Emma had disappeared out of a while back.

“Cretin.” Mal grumbled and stepped up onto the couch, ignoring Regina’s gasp of protest when her filthy bare feet came down onto the cream material.

Mal folded herself down onto the couch and settled herself comfortably with a wriggle. She made sure to leave room for Regina and looked at her expectantly when she did not immediately  have a lap full of former Evil Queen.

“What?”

“You’re _filthy_.” Regina raked her with a glance and then studied with a slower appreciation when she remembered that she actually had an affection for this look on Mal.

Her blonde hair was left loose but twisted into a messy tail to swing down over one shoulder. She wore a black tank top and black pants but little else. Her clothes and skin were streaked with dirt here and there and she was flushed from her exertion of building a ‘nest’ even now. She smelled of cinnamon sweat and heat and dragon.

Mal immediately grinned and arched a brow.

“As are you, my love.” She held up Lily. “Otherwise this one never would have come about.”

“Do you really?” Regina’s face and voice were suddenly completely serious.

“Do I really what?” Mal was suddenly on high alert. She was always fully aware that Regina understood dragons a great deal more than Mal understood humans.

They were all so… _pink_ and complicated! There were so many nuances to everything they did. Mal was over three thousand years old and she STILL didn’t understand all of them and she had no idea what she had done in order to put that expression on Regina’s face but she wanted to not do it again.

“Do you really…love me?”

“Oh!” Mal huffed out a great gout of green smoke sparked with pink. “Little idiot.”

She scolded Regina but didn’t give her the time to be offended. Reaching out, she circled Regina’s waist with one arm and hoisted her onto her lap. Dipping her head, she yanked Regina’s shirt aside with her teeth and nuzzled her face into the soft skin of her throat. She nosed at the purple dragon ‘tattoo’ that shimmered like Mal’s flames branded to her mate’s throat. Where anyone could see.

Where everyone was _supposed_ to see.

She bore her own mark on the swell of her left breast, over her heart, but she was not so subtle as Regina and saw no reason not to make it clear that Regina was taken and the wroth of a dragon was what they would get if anyone ever forgot it.

Her tongue rasped over the coil of the stylised dragon with a golden crown collaring its neck on Regina’s throat and earned a shiver from her mate as a reward.

“Of course I love you.” She scraped her teeth over the mark and Regina squirmed. “Lily would not be without our love. She is literal proof of it and that will never change. Do you think I submitted to my prison for nothing? Being close to you, awaiting the chance to be with you once more, was worth any confinement. You had already chained me, feisty one, my heart to yours. A cavern compared to that is nothing. I love you and it is eternal. Never doubt it.”

“Good.” Regina let loose a shivering breath and smirked when Mal growled into her neck. “And I suppose you’re alright.”

Mal growled louder and nipped at Regina’s brand with her teeth. Regina groaned and laughed at the same time.

“I love you.” She admitted before Mal decided to up the ante and there was a limit to what Regina was prepared to submit to with their child between them. “I love you both.”

Mal hummed deep in her throat. This was as it should be.

“And I love Henry.”

Mal snorted in displeasure.

“You _will_ get along with him.”

“He hurt you.”

“If he hadn’t done what he did then we would not be together now.”

“I am NOT thanking him.” Mal cut off that line of thought before Regina could think to inveigle that logic into the conversation. She might not know much about humans in general but she knew Regina.

“Then will you at least give him a chance?”

“To run when I hunt him? Perhaps.” Mal shrugged her shoulder and was entirely unprepared for Regina to yank aside the neckline of her top and bite down on the brand that rode the swell of Mal’s left breast. A stylised magpie coloured hippogriff holding a gleaming enchanted heart in its claws. It had originally been another dragon but after Regina had taken the form of a hippogriff, Mal's brand had changed to reflect that shape.

Mal jolted as if electrified and growled low in her throat. Her eyes were a little glassy and sparked with magic when Regina lifted her head to meet her gaze.

“He is important to me. As important as Lily. Just as much my child. Do you understand?”

“Are you _sure_ I cannot put you to bed?” Mal’s claws raked down the back of Regina’s shirt.

“Do you. Understand?” Regina’s fingernail traced over the coil of the brand hippogriff’s body on the swell of Mal’s chest and Mal growled.

“I understand.” Mal seemed mesmerised by the sensation of Regina’s fingernail ghosting lightly over the brand over and over and over…until she stopped.

Mal jolted back to reality and growled.

“That was a dirty trick.”

“When have you _ever_ known me to fight fair?” Regina smirked and the moment was only broken when the front door opened again and Henry bounded back into the living room.

He slithered to a halt when he found his mom sitting in Mal’s lap, Lily curled between them. They looked like a family. A whole family. He bit his lip and then his mom turned so she sat properly on the couch again and she patted the space beside her.

“There’s still space enough for you.”

Henry beamed when his mom always knew what to say to make him feel better and he bounded around the couch to drop down to sit beside his mom though he was careful not to touch Mal’s leg that was propped against the back of the couch so his mom leaned on it.

“Emma says that it’s cool that I stay and she’s gone back to the loft to make sure that Mary Margaret and David don’t come here all swords and arrows to get me back.”

“Wise decision.” Mal drawled. “If I am not allowed to eat you, I can only surmise that parboiling the relatives has been vetoed also.”

“Weeeeelll…” Regina cocked her head and looked at the ceiling, laughing when Henry nudged her with his shoulder.

“Mo-om!”

“Probably best not to, love.” Regina rested her hand on Mal’s leg. “The mob gets testy about that kind of thing.”

“I make no promises should aforementioned swords and arrows appear within sight of my child.” Mal grumbled and her eyes landed on Henry before she looked away. “Or yours.”

Regina smiled and settled back to lean against Mal’s leg and lifted her arm so that Henry could curl into her side again. She pressed a kiss to Henry’s head and allowed herself to be drawn into a discussion about what was for dinner.

She assured Henry that she wouldn’t be drinking cow’s blood either and that was a Lily special.

Mal was tense around Henry and he was wary of her but they both put the effort in for Regina and it was a novel thing for her. To have someone that would love her truly enough to put up with something they disliked so intensely just to keep her happy.

She was confident that they would grow to like one another. Mal had such a great sense of humour and she was a _dragon_ which would have Henry a gibbering wreck as soon as he was sure that she was good for his mom and Henry was fierce and loyal and kind and those were all things that Mal could respect.

So hers would be an odd family, that was fine, but at least she knew that it now _would_ be a family.

And if it was going to stick around she may actually get a full night’s sleep.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY! So, I've decided to take prompts for this. Don't expect any major movement at any great speed but if you want to ask a question as to what might happen in this little pocket universe on any given day then I find that's the best way to put coins in the slot machine in my head that churns out ideas. 
> 
> Drop your prompter questions in the box below.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!
> 
> Almost. Tonight. Whatever. 
> 
> Anyway, I'm on this whole 'It's Not Perfect But It's Finished' kick because I am shit done with being unproductive. This sucker has been sitting half done on my harddrive for too damn long so here's the finished product. 
> 
> I've never written play with toys before so if I offend anyone in the audience...get over it, I guess. 
> 
> Anyway, who can write a character development into a sex scene?
> 
> THIS GAL CAN!
> 
> Enjoy.

**The Oncoming Storm**

**_The Forbidden Fortress, One Year Before the Curse…_ **

 

Maleficent’s eyes snapped open when her hand lazily stretched out and she found nothing on the other side of the bed save for distressed sheets.

The dragon, in her human form, lifted her head and blinked to hurry her eyes in adjusting to the hazy burnt umber of twilight streaming in through the windows.

Dragons could see well in the day and even better in the night but the haze of dusk and dawn wrought havoc with their keen eyes. It took Mal a moment to spot her prey and she scowled at what she saw.

“What are you doing?”

“Hmm?” Regina glanced up from rolling one of her silk stockings to the top of her thigh. She tied it carefully with the silk ribbon to attach it to the garter.

“What. Are you doing?” Mal sat all the way up, uncaring that she was naked and Regina very nearly fully clothed.

Regina raised her eyebrows as if considering the question might be a trick (spending too much time with the imp still) and then dismissed that notion as too much effort from Mal at this time of the afternoon.

“I’m getting dressed. Typically one does before going outside.”

Maleficent was an ancient beast and she was somewhat befuddled by humans at the best of times and Regina in particular could be a quandary to her but she was almost certain that had made no sense.

“You can’t.”

Regina stilled in the action of wriggling into those painted on leather breeches of hers and then continued on as if Mal had said nothing.

“Of course I can, I mastered teleportation years ago.”

“The storm comes.”

“Ah, see, teleportation is how _all_ the modern sorcerers are doing it.” Regina shot a smirk at Mal to shave the insult from her flippant tone. “No actual outside required.”

The smile slipped from her face to an expression of more earthy appreciation when Mal threw aside the sheets that covered her and rolled naked from the bed. She padded around the huge frame and stood towering over Regina.

Evil Queen or not, her breathing hitched when the Dragon of the West loomed over her. She opened her mouth to say…something stupid probably, but then Maleficent’s words filtered through.

“Wait; _the_ storm?”

“Yes.” Maleficent reached up to wind one of Regina’s curls around her finger. “THE storm. The storm that comes but once a year. The storm I invited you out here to see in the first place.”

“I thought…” Regina waved at the bed and then clipped her teeth together when Mal chuckled a deep and rich sound.

“You _are_ delicious, little one, my favoured delicacy, but you are _also_ my apprentice and I should be lax in my duties should I not finish your teaching.” Maleficent prowled around Regina, buffeting her with her strength and heat from all sides.

“Finish…my teaching…?” Regina murmured and stared at the dragon’s naked back as she lifted her arms and shook her hair back, a sheer black silk robe appearing over her body.

“Of course. You have been my apprentice for,” Mal trailed off and frowned, “how long has it been?”

“Thirteen years.” Regina reminded herself not to take offence at an immortal’s temporal dyslexia. Decades and even centuries could blur together for Mal, thirteen years was nothing to her.

Nothing. To _her._ Regina reminded herself firmly.

“Is that all?” Mal smirked and reached out to tap at Regina’s dangling earring with one sharp nail. “Interesting. Anyway, you have learned much as my apprentice, passed all my tests, learned all the tricks I have taught you and now it is time for you to learn of the wider world of magic around you.”

“I’ve learned of the five elements. I’ve studied in Agrabah, Atlantis and Babylon, visited the Hidden Library and- -“

“And battled balrogs, boggarts and behemoths-oh-my.” Mal drawled and picked up a pitcher of wine. She gave a cautious sniff and a shrug before pouring herself a goblet and another for Regina. She had been working on her human manners, you see. “I am aware of your studies. Your first apprenticeship to the imp (feckless beast) as well as his –hmm- _pointed_ lessons that he has seen fit to dole out to you.”

“Rumple’s taught me a lot more than- -“

“ _Rumple_ ,” Mal snapped with a clip of her teeth, lurid eyes flashing in the dim light, “taught you what he wants you to know. _I_ am going to teach you what you NEED to know. As a sorceress. As a power in this world. Do you understand?”

“Not…really.” Regina admitted after a moment. She accepted the goblet from Mal when it was thrust into her hand.

“I am the Dragon of the West, correct?” Mal summoned patience from somewhere for her wilfully obdurate student.

“It’s an assumption I’ve made based on you turning into a sixty foot reptile of occasion, but I’ve been wrong before.” Regina clattered her goblet onto the table and shrugged on her coat. She didn’t have time for Mal’s theatrics. She had things to do.

“Yes. You have.”

Regina staggered back a step when Mal was suddenly _there_ and looming over her again. She clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes at the dragon. She straightened her coat with harsh jerks.

“Your point?” Regina gritted.

“My point is; you know my name and my title but have never once thought to ask who pins down the other three corners of the map.”

Regina blinked up at the dragon when she realised…that was entirely true.

“There are other…what?” Regina frowned. “Hold down the map?”

“Did you think the magic in this world does its bidding through your efforts _alone?_ ” Maleficent smirked at such an adorable and yet entirely idiotic notion. “Magic is a force. As gravity gives form to the cosmos, the Four bring form, weight, texture, to the magic of this world. Without us pinning it down…chaos.” Mal waved her hand as if that meant very little in the grand scheme of things and to her it really didn’t.

What was the death of a civilisation when you had seen them rise and fall as her apprentice had seen the turn of the seasons and the falling of leaves?

“What kind of chaos? Should you not have _led_ with this?”

“Oh, nothing major, the shifting of continents, the waking of fire mountains, typhoons, earthquakes…everybody’s left shoe disappearing.” Mal shrugged a shoulder and prowled towards the huge windows that looked out over the wastelands that surrounded the Forbidden Fortress. “And I did not _lead_ with it because you did not need to know. Very few, in actual fact, know of our existence.”

“How few is very few?” Regina scoffed a little, she couldn’t help it. The idea that Mal could _care_ about something so…so prescient as the workings of magic within the mortal world was too farfetched, even for Regina. The dragon was many things, but concerned for the lives of others she was not.

“Hmmm…eight.”

“Eight what?”

“Eight people know of who we are and what our responsibilities are.” Mal sipped from her wine and watched the greying sky outside.

The storm would come from nowhere to the unknowing but for one such as she, she could already feel it. A charge built in the air, danced feather light over her skin, simmered in her blood. When it came it would rattle her to her bones.

“Eight people? In the whole world?”

“Hmm.” Mal hummed and her eyes glittered as she watched the sky. Any moment now.

Regina approached Mal and stood behind her. She frowned at the dragon’s back and wondered what to do with this new information.

“Nine.”

“What?” Mal turned her head to give Regina her sculpted profile.

“Well, nine now. You just told me.”

“No. You are the eighth.”

“Oh.” Regina adjusted to that and –after a moment- smirked. Her first though: _I know something Rumple doesn’t_. Closely followed by: _what price does this information come at?_

“Come here.” Mal lifted her arm with the full expectation that Regina would step under it and hummed a low purr when the queen forgot herself and did just that.

Mal smirked, queen in all things but still her lover. Still Mal’s. All hers. Rumple’s hold over the young woman slipped further and further by the day. Hopefully, after this little excursion of theirs, Regina would be free of him. Free to stay with Mal. Free to give up vengeance and live her own life.

Mal watched the thunderheads roll over the flat expanse of the Wastes. Past the thorn wall, over her territories that she had purged of life long since past. Past the carcass of the tree that had burned for decades. Their shadow raced before them, darkening the ground. Mal could smell the oncoming storm and she felt a quiver race through her smaller form at all that deliciously unfettered _power_ headed her way.

Mal’s green tongue traced over purple lips and her pale eyes glittered.

This was her favourite time of year.

“What is that?” Regina’s arm slipped around Mal’s waist and she frowned, peering at the clouds. Her human eyes weak, even augmented as they were by the shimmer of magic, but she still tried to see.

“Magic. The storm is summoned by my eastern counterpart. The Eagle of the East. He is –funnily enough- a thunderbird. He –ah- herds? Hmm. Herds the magic into clouds. Corrals it together and then drives it West.” Mal drew her arm around Regina’s shoulders and spoke into the young queen’s hair.

“And what do you do?” Regina caught on quickly. If the other point of the compass herded the magic this way then it stood to reason that his counterpoint in Mal was expected to do something with it as well.

“Burst the clouds.” Mal smirked. “Force the rain. I do not have a floodplain on my doorstep for fun.” Mal nodded to the grey expanse beyond the Fortress. “When the clouds gather, when the storm is at peak in this basin, I will force it to a boil.” Mal waved with her wine goblet to the spires of mountains that hemmed in the huge valley of her territory. “The water gathers and soaks into the earth here. It feeds into the ground, taken up by the trees. Making the forest –well- Enchanted.”

Regina’s mouth opened and then she closed it as she absorbed that. She sensed correctly that Mal had more to say.

“The waters will recede, find rivers, streams, lakes. Flow back to the ocean. There it will pour into the great currents that run through all of the seas. The Whale to the South drinks in the magic. Sifting it from the water as his mortal brethren do the tiny krill. He will do this for months at a time and then breach the surface, gusting it all into the air in a single breath. The Wolf of the North will sweep down over the planet, a cold horror of wind driven before him which freezes the magic, giving it a physical form for him to chase West…where it will be herded together and forced into clouds and the process starts all over again.”

The images brought by Mal’s words danced over Regina’s vision, appearing in shapes and shadows within the clouds. Huge clouds. Bigger than she had ever seen. She frowned a little when she saw the lash and score of purplish lightning within the depths of those steel grey thunderheads. She swallowed.

“I thought you didn’t fly during storms? Too dangerous. The lightning could strike you.”

“The lightning will strike me.” Mal cocked her head and shrugged her shoulder as if this was no great deal and Regina frowned when her arm tightened around Mal as if to prevent her from going anywhere.

As if she ever could!

“Won’t that hurt?”

“I am accustomed to pain.” Mal tilted her head the other way, resting her jaw against Regina’s temple. “I will survive.”

“Isn’t there another way?”

“Not for as long as I have held this duty.” Mal shook her head and sipped of her wine. “You must wait here.”

Regina arched a brow.

“Oh I must, must I?”

“Yes.” Mal clunked her goblet down onto the windowsill, drawing away from Regina to press nearer to the glass. Her hot breath fogged one of the panes but she paid it no mind. Her voice was absent when she next spoke. “Wait here like a good girl.”

Her eyes shone with a sparking magic, her expression was far away, like she was already up there in the clouds.

Regina felt her hands clench at her sides, her long nails biting into her palms. Her lips pressed together in an attempt to keep her words behind her teeth.

She felt suddenly foolish in that moment. That she had thought to _protect_ the Dragon of the West. That she had thought the dragon in question might want such protection. That she might need it.

She was nigh unto a god after all. She had just said as much. She was one of the four…what? Harbingers of magic? There were but three other creatures that could do what she did. That could give form and flow to the magic of this world and Regina had thought…

Regina’s jaw clenched.

She was sickened to be the student. Sickened to _sit_ and _wait_ whilst the dragon went off into the storm. She was appalled to find herself wanting to do just that. To sit right there as she had been bidden to make sure that Maleficent ( _the_ Maleficent) was alright after doing whatever it is she had been doing for centuries on end with no ill effect whatsoever.

She was devastated to be told to wait. To be relegated to the corner like a child once more. To sit and be pretty and wait for the approval of this towering figure of power in her life.

“I will be fine.” Mal turned back to Regina and smiled.

Regina, caught, could not summon a returning smile. She settled for a neutral expression that Mal took to be assent. She considered her student reassured and shrugged with an elegant movement reminiscent of the way she mantled her wings in her natural form. Her robe parted and shimmered as it slithered down over her bare shoulders and spine to pool in a dark puddle on the floor.

“Wait for me, sweet.” Mal reached out, her fingers tracing over the curve of Regina’s cheek. “You wait right here.”

Regina kept her jaw from clenching only through many years of practice. She hid the rage beneath her beauty as she had learned to do over a decade ago. She did not smile because Mal didn’t need that. Baring your teeth at a dragon could land one in trouble if one wasn’t careful. She dipped her chin in what could easily be mistaken for a nod and Mal hummed in apparent satisfaction.

“Good.”

Regina looked up at Mal from beneath hooded lashes and she felt a rush of hot and sour feeling pour from her heart to her gut when Mal had already turned away. Back to the oncoming storm. Back to more power than Regina had ever thought to muster.

Back to her duty and her _life._

Her back turned to Regina and the dalliance that she represented and Regina would be hard pressed to summon a situation that had twisted as deep as this particular knife of emotion shanked her gut.

Mal’s fingers ghosted over Regina’s arm, down past her wrist and the dragon’s claws prickled over her skin with a zing of sensation. She gave a brief squeeze and then flicked her other fingers.

The windows sprang apart as if hurled open by a gust of fierce wind. Mal prowled through them and out into the boiling greys of the Wastes.

It was as if the storm knew of her coming. As soon as Mal’s feet hit the worn flagstones of the balcony, the rain _sheeted_ from the sky. With a sibilant hiss that rose to a snarl and then a thundering boom overhead, the storm broke. The clouds seethed, crashing into one another. Green lightning flashed, purple thunder bawled and Mal’s own midnight green magic billowed around her like ink in water.

Mal became a storm front of her own making and she _exploded_ into her dragon form. Her scales boiled over her skin, rupturing outwards faster than the smoke of Mal’s covering magic. Mal was a vain creature after all, nobody really wanted to see a beautiful woman turn into a ferocious monster –the in between could be brutal- but the storm would not wait.

And neither would Regina.

Regina watched as Mal threw back her head and roared, her voice screaming out into the howl of the storm. The clouds bellowed back in apparent greeting and Mal spread her wings wide, embracing the thundering rain as it engulfed every part of her. Her muscles coiled as she slunk low and then sprang up from a standing start.

Regina –despite herself- struggled to keep Mal in her sights even as the dragon arrowed up into the warring skies. Her wings boomed even in the cacophony of the thunder and lightning. Her tail slicing the air, her wings clapping in gigantic applause at the show the heavens spread before her.

Lightning lashed. Mal screamed.

Regina flinched despite herself.

Her chest was heaving as if she had run a marathon though she stood perfectly still. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks pale as she watched Maleficent dive amongst the clouds.

She was a perfect flier.

She whirled on a wingtip, knifed through the clouds, shattering them, driving them before her. She spun over her tail and stooped like a hawk, raking the air with her talons and rending the storm apart.

Magic burst and glittered over her armoured scales in a symphony of sound. A percussion against even Regina’s senses as she watched from nearly a mile below. Her hands still clenched at her sides and her breath coming in short and frantic gusts.

Again and again and again and _again_ Mal was struck by the unnatural light. It hammered her scales, wrenching her in the sky. The wind tore at her, tossing her form around like a doll but she rolled with the gusts. She spun like a dancer amongst waves in a stormy sea.

She was going to be torn apart.

And Regina could watch no more.

She might mean nothing to the dragon but she had not gotten to the point where she could lie so convincingly to herself that she might believe that Mal meant nothing to _her._ She cared for the Dragon of the West and she could no more stand to see her beaten bloody by this masochistic ritual than she could take on a dragon form herself.

With a wretched shake of her head, Regina summoned her magic and disappeared.

Mistake.

Teleportation, in theory, allowed a magical practitioner to cross vast distances almost instantaneously. It is difficult to put into mortal terms but it essentially involves turning the sorcerer’s form inside out so that the magic becomes external and the physical is gloved in the protective forces of pure energy. Which allows it to travel along pathways of magnetism, gravity or light (travelling across paths of history is for beginners and future paths for the veterans).

Either way, teleportation was NOT a good idea when all of the above energies are caught in miasmic confluence in a magical storm such as the one boiling over Maleficent’s keep.

Teleportation should feel like a blurring of the senses. A liquidation between one place and the next. It can be disorientating if done improperly but Regina had always been a model student and she had taken to flitting from one spot to the other as a bird would to the wing. She privately mused it might have had something to do with her prevalent desire to disappear in her formative years.

All that being said, nothing had prepared her for teleporting in such a storm as the one boiling around and _in_ her as it was then.

Regina would have screamed had she still had the vocal chords to do so. She’d have writhed had she been in possession of muscles and bone, clenched her teeth if she had technically had them as well and she would have given very much to be able to shut her eyes against the violent, concussive, corrosive light that invaded her very being.

It lasted a handful of moments, mere seconds, before she managed to fling herself violently out of the streams of energy that ran a rampant hurricane across her magic. She folded out of the space between several metres above the ground and travelling at some speed.

The rain hit her like hammer and tongs, cloying to her skin like tar. She crashed through the trees, plummeting to the earth and spiralling through the undergrowth in an awful horror of sensation. She tumbled end over end, soaked to the skin through the ruins of her clothes within seconds, covered in dirt and –oh yes- blood and crumpled to a halt face down on the ground.

She couldn’t remember how to breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t swallow, she didn’t even know how to blink. All she could do was lie there and gasp and hope to die quickly.

A scream echoed above the rage of the storm and a concussive thunder rattled the bedrock beneath the slippery ground Regina lay prone on.

“Regina!”

Regina would have answered, she really would have, but her tongue didn’t work anymore.

“Stars and stones, _what have you done?!”_ Mal hissed at her, her hands closing around Regina’s shoulders and rolling her onto her back with what seemed like horrifying violence.

Regina gargled a sound of pain.

“Your leg…” Mal knelt over Regina, her golden hair plastered down against her face and naked body and her hands hovered over Regina’s ruined leg uncertainly.

She had never seen such damage before.

Regina had hurled herself from the space between, unfolding herself into the physical realm but some of her…hadn’t straightened out properly.

Her leg twisted at an unnatural angle, blood poured from it soaking dark into the ground beneath her, bones were warped and curled out of her flesh like antler, her muscles hung in ragged lumps, dripping from gaping wounds of magic where skin and sinew should be.

Mal was stunned. Why had she…?

Unimportant.

“Change.” She demanded of her student.

Regina blearily looked at her and –even now, even bleeding out into the ground- managed to eyeball her in a manner of extreme askance.

“Change your shape, idiot girl!” Mal roared. “I cannot leave the storm, not even for you, now _CHANGE_.”

Regina convulsed, going into shock, but tried to summon her magic anyway because the same part of her that was still operating under sardonic parameters was the part that coolly informed her that she would die if she did not switch her form and heal her wounds.

Her magic stuttered and started. Drained in those scant instants in the roil of the storm. She had given all of her magic to it in a handful of frantic heartbeats and now she had none left to call her own.

She was going to die.

Regina sagged against the ground, almost bizarrely comforted by that knowledge.

Well, at least she wasn’t alone.

“Don’t you dare.” Mal snarled and gripped Regina none too kindly by the hair. She hoisted her entire torso up off the ground with that hold, her mouth sliding over Regina’s and she breathed _fire_ into her.

Regina stiffened, her back arching, and her eyes flying wide. Her hands clawed at Mal’s shoulders, trying to get her to stop, trying to get her to _never_ stop, and Mal roared magic and fire and something Regina didn’t want to name into the very heart of her.

Power. Unfettered, unadulterated, pure, _power_ poured into Regina until she felt it bleeding from her ruined leg instead of blood. It boiled out of her skin, she was exhaling it, she was _sweating_ it.

She was it.

“Now change!” Mal drew back, breathing hard, and commanded Regina imperiously.

Regina, feeling that she was now more Mal’s magic than anything else, scrambled madly away from the dragon and she felt the command in her bones. The magic hammered in her head as clarion bells, boiled in her veins like molten lava and her human self melted away.

She became fluid, water, changeable. She was growing, bigger and bigger, unstoppable. Wings exploded from her back, scales armoured her skin. Her legs buckled even as her wretched limb healed. Talons exploded from her hands and she grew and grew and GREW.

Regina, Regina the _dragon_ , hurled her head back and screamed when the entire world seemed to be in her head.

She could smell everything, taste the storm, taste Mal, hear the siren call of the winds overhead, the caress of the air over her scales, tugging her wings open, beckoning her skyward. Her tail lashed just for the feel of it, her talons raked the ground and fire thrummed in her throat in place of a voice.

 _Up_.

Mal’s voice filled Regina’s head, calming the storm there, giving her peace. Giving her space to think.

_Up, sweet. Lift your wings and do as I do._

Regina turned her head, her head that was now longer than she had been tall. The spines and frills around her head flared, her skin prickled when her scales rose and fell at the sight of Maleficent towering over her. Even as dragons, Mal was still far larger.

Mal lifted one huge wing, holding it over Regina’s head and shielding her from the storm. She studied her for a moment, without the slashing of the rain torrenting over her scales. Glowing green eyes studied Regina’s shimmering form from her nose to her tail and she nodded once sharply.

_Up._

Mal lifted her wings, the rain slashing down onto Regina again, and vaulted into the sky.

An instinct Regina had never had before flared in her chest and her wings boomed wide almost of their own accord. She crouched low and then powered up, leaping high. Her wings swept down with such _power_ and she was thrust up into the sky.

She laboured after Maleficent, stunned at this new world that she now found herself in. The colours, the eddies and flows of the storm –of the magic- around her. She saw it spiral and swirl. Saw it knot and twist and then, Maleficent spun over her wingtip, arrowing down and slashing through that knot.

The magic burst, exploding as a firework might, into the air itself. Regina watched, entranced, gliding on the rushing thermals filling her wings. The magic splintered into tiny pieces. Each piece caught on the dew of the falling rain and dragged down to the earth below in waterfalls of light and power.

She could see it now. She could see the pattern.

She jolted in the sky when lightning struck her hide and she faltered but it was more from surprise than anything else.

It didn’t hurt.

She’d just been struck by _lightning_ and it didn’t hurt. It dashed from her scales, slipping from her wingtips with as much harm as the water of the rain levelled at her.

Mal whirled past her again, knifing her wing through another knot of magic, bursting that one too. It showered down with the rest of the rain. The wind sang, the thunder drummed and Mal _soared_.

Regina couldn’t just watch. She couldn’t.

She didn’t know what to do and had made more the fool of herself already, but she knew what she could do.

Regina beat her wings down with enough strength to feel the burn across her now huge shoulders. She shot up into the sky, rising up beneath Maleficent as she arced with lazy grace through the torrential rain. Regina matched her wings to Maleficent’s. Stroke for stroke, she flew as close as she dared, close enough for Mal to reach out and touch her with her talons.

They kept perfect time together.

So perfect that it took Mal a moment to realise that Regina was even there. It had felt so natural to have her there. Close enough to steal the very wind from her wings if they were not careful but Mal found that she couldn’t feel gravity in Regina’s presence. She felt nothing but buoyed because her was her student a student no longer.

In the form of a dragon, directly beneath her, matching her beat for beat of wing and with every swish of her tail. She swam through the air beneath Maleficent close enough to touch and it was a temptation. It was always a temptation where Regina was concerned, to reach out, to grasp her close, to keep her there.

Mal spun, before she could give in to that desire, and burst another ball of magic.

Regina was right there the whole time.

For the first time, Mal was not alone.

Over three thousand years old and she had never smiled in her dragon form before that moment.

She did then.

 

**_Storybrooke, Now…_ **

 

Mal woke with a smile on her face and the sound of rain drumming in her head.

Opening her eyes blearily, Mal realised that the patter of rain was not restricted to her memory.

A dull grey light filled the room, thunder rumbled sullenly overhead and Mal found herself with a powerful desire to lay hands on her wife.

She rolled over, reaching out, and growled when she found the bed empty.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Mal sat up when Regina spoke from by the window. She grinned when her favourite sight greeted her.

Regina stood in the soft grey light streaming in through the window. She wore her prerequisite pencil skirt suit. Her hair was a little tousled. Either from the wind outside or from a stressful day of tunnelling her fingers through her hair because she had to deal with Emma or anything else that had a pulse. She wore a smile too though.

Because she held their daughter.

Regina was either unaware that Mal was awake and watching or she didn’t care. Either way, she remained unguarded, stroking Lily’s head and neck and turned so they could both look out into the rain.

“See, it’s just the sky.”

Lily crooned, hunched down in Regina’s arms, making herself as small as possible.

“The sky and the storm.” Regina continued in a soft voice. “Storms can’t hurt dragons. Not even a little one like you. Storms _make_ dragons. Did you know that?”

Lily, still very young but aware of when she was being addressed, looked up at her mother.

“That’s right,” Regina bent and nuzzled her nose against Lily’s, “you were made on a night very like this one. Magic and noise and no small amount of idiocy led to you, honey. Quite the best idiotic thing I’ve ever done, by the way.”

“Mrrrp?” Lily straightened a little, despite the growling thunder overhead.

She didn’t know what it was, only what it sounded like. It sounded like another dragon. One bigger than Big Mommy and Lily didn’t have a scale of measurement for that other than _Bad_.

“Yes. I was _very_ silly and it led to your mommy being _even sillier_ and turning me into a dragon. She didn’t even ask by the way and consent is very important but that’s another story.”

Mal smirked wryly and rolled her eyes.

“Still,” Regina smiled when Lily chirruped again and stretched up to prop her little talons on Regina’s shoulders, twisting her neck so she could see out the window _and_ be cuddled, “I would change none of it because it gave me you.”

Regina dropped a kiss on Lily’s little head between the stubs of her horns.

“You and your mother. Who does not ask for things.”

“You are perfectly aware that your then puny mortal self would have expired toot sweet had I done nothing.” Mal hurled aside the covers and rolled from the bed.

“Mrrp!” Lily twisted to see Mal’s approach and her wings flapped with a disproportionate strength.

It made Mal smile to think that her daughter already wanted to fly to her.

“Good evening.” Regina smiled a knowing smile as Mal approached. So she had been fully aware that Mal was listening. “Nice nap?”

“Lonely.” Mal corrected and stepped up behind Regina. She wound her arms around Regina’s slim waist and dropped her chin onto her shoulder so that Lily could reach her to pepper her cheek and chin with dragon kisses.

Regina leaned back into her, her head tilting so that she could rub her cheek against Mal’s and Mal all but purred.

“This one was awake.” Regina lifted a hand and let Lily mouth at it. She was still without teeth but Regina’s skin was tough enough now to take even a kittling gumming at her.

“She was content to play by herself. I was listening.” Mal petted Lily’s neck spines, soft and feathery on the skin of her fingertips. “She doesn’t truly get lonely so long as she knows we are nearby.”

“A feeling I can identify with.” Regina murmured quietly and Mal grinned.

They remained silent for a few moments, content to lean into one another and listen to the storm. Now that Lily had both mothers with her, she felt no fear at all about the sky dragon’s growling and she was content to curl into a little scaly Danish shape and snuggle.

“I did not know that you had realised.” Mal wrapped her arms more securely around Regina and Lily both. “About the storm and its effect.”

“Well,” Regina gusted a sigh and mulled that for a moment, “she’s so powerfully magical, even sealed in the egg I could feel it and I realised that I would have felt her from the very _moment_ you conceived…unless something was distracting me.”

“Like a magical storm, hmm?”

“Exactly like.”

“Did you really think yourself foolish for following me out into the storm?” Mal stroked Lily’s spines along her back and waited for Regina’s answer.

“Well…confession time. I wasn’t really trying to follow you. I was trying to get away.”

Mal stiffened.

“When you turned to me and told me to stay put like a good girl…it had a somewhat binary and kneejerk response to that.”

Mal grunted noncommittally.

“So I was going to…leave and…never come back.” Regina looked intently down at Lily even as she dropped into sleep. She smiled, because she couldn’t not. Their little kittling slept a lot now. It would not last much longer so Regina decided to be grateful for the quiet times whilst they lasted.

Mal’s silence at her back grew particularly loud and Regina knew this was about to be a Discussion.

She slipped from Mal’s arms and through to the nursery. She settled Lily in her little shell lined ‘crib’ and scooped some of the warm shell up onto Lily’s back. Kittlings were hell on blankets and Lily didn’t really need one anyway.

Regina allowed herself a full thirty seconds of Helpless Gazing at what she and Mal had made together and then pulled herself away. She sucked in a deep breath of roasted kittling nursery air and then ducked through to the comparative cool of the bedroom. Her skin prickled at the temperature change but her entire body tingled at the _Look_ Mal lanced her with.

“Why would you run from me?” Mal pushed off the end of the bed and prowled towards Regina, all predatory intent.

“I…you said exactly the wrong thing and it sent me into a tailspin.” Regina shrugged helplessly but didn’t fight it at all when Mal reached for her blazer and began to pluck at the buttons holding it closed.

“Confession time.” Mal pulled Regina closer by the material of her shirt, popping several buttons loose in the process. “I deliberately said the wrong thing.”

Regina rocked her head back, her chin kicking up and her eyebrow arching.

Mal smirked.

“I wanted you to run out into the storm. I wanted you to…prove yourself.” Mal pushed Regina’s blazer from her shoulders and let it thump to the floor with a soft crumple of fabric.

“It was a _test_?” Regina sounded like she was deciding whether or not she should be angry.

“You were still my student. It was my prerogative to _test_.” Mal stumbled Regina a further step closer and leaned down to nuzzle at the brand riding up over Regina’s neck.

She shivered when Mal’s green tongue traced the inked lines of the purple dragon’s scales. She all but purred when Mal sucked at the branded flame on Regina’s neck right at the corner of her jaw.

“Did I- -yes, there- did I pass?” Regina’s voice was breathy as she allowed herself to be seduced out of irritability.

Her shirt was peeled away under Mal’s ministrations and Regina spurred herself into action. Mal wore only a tee shirt and panties but it was still far too much as far as Regina was concerned. That and that little band of skin between the hem of her tee shirt and the waistband of the panties was enough to drive Regina to distraction so it made perfect sense to strip her out of the shirt and solve the problem.

Honest.

Mal hummed, pleased when she could slide skin to skin with Regina.

“With –what is the phrase?- flying colours, sweet.” Mal chuckled into Regina’s neck and finessed the clasp of Regina’s bra, wasting no time in peeling it away. “True, I did not intend for you to nearly tear yourself apart. I had thought that you would truly run or perhaps fly after me. You had seen me turn enough times, after all.”

“So you goaded me and still expected me to think clearly?” Regina leaned even closer to Mal so she could reach the zip of her skirt more easily. Mal smirked as she rasped it downward and then shoved the fabric down over Regina’s hips to pool on the floor.

“Of course.” Mal nipped a kiss on Regina’s lips. “I have high standards for students. Even higher for a mate. You were to undergo rigorous testing. Extensive.” Mal’s fingers hooked under the material of Regina’s own underwear and she dropped fluidly to her knees to peel them down and off Regina. “In depth, even.”

Regina gulped down a gasp when Mal’s hot breath feathered between her legs.

“So you intended this for me even then?” Regina’s fingers tangled in Mal’s hair and the dragon chuckled wickedly.

“Sweet, I intended this for you from the first moment we _met_.”

Regina was about to issue a witty retort but it dissolved into a groan when Mal leaned forward and dragged her tongue over the sensitive skin just below Regina’s navel. She ducked lower, nudging Regina’s legs apart further and pressed a searing kiss right between Regina’s thighs.

Regina’s head fell back, her fingers burying themselves in the thick mass of Mal’s hair. She gripped tightly, knowing she couldn’t hurt her wife that way and also knowing that she was going to need something to hold herself up with. Mal was not in the mood to be gentle with her.

Regina’s back arched involuntarily when Mal proved her right by extending her tongue in a long, firm, lick. She dragged the whole length of her velvet tongue over Regina’s already sensitive clit and Regina quivered for her.

Mal’s sharp nails scored lightly over Regina’s thighs. Lightning trails of sensation zinging over Regina’s skin and awakening her whole body. Mal kissed and licked gently, lulling Regina into a false sense of security no doubt. She gave delicate licks, soft nips of her teeth that made Regina jolt and teased her mercilessly by dipping her tongue into Regina’s cunt but never quite giving her what she wanted.

“Mal!” Regina squirmed and Mal chuckled. “Fuck me or I’m going downstairs.”

“What is downstairs that is better than me?” Mal nipped at Regina’s hip with enough bite to let her know she was not pleased with the turn of the conversation.

“I don’t know. Batteries maybe.” Regina narrowed her eyes and bent suddenly, hooking her hands beneath Mal’s arms and lifting her bodily from the floor.

Mal’s eyes went wide, apparently having forgotten that Regina was considerably stronger than she looked, but she let herself be hurled backwards onto the rumpled sheets of the bed. She bounced on the mattress and chuckled when Regina was on her an instant later.

“Impatient, sweet?”

“If this is another test, I _will_ bite you.” Regina tangled her fingers in Mal’s panties and disappeared them with a throb of magic.

“Promises, promises.” Mal hummed and let her arms fall up and over her head, arching prettily for Regina.

She did not pose for just _anyone_ and she was pleased when Regina’s eyes darkened at the sight. Her tongue traced over her teeth with predatory intent that had Mal grinning and she let herself be taken when Regina ducked her head and _did_ bite.

Mal cursed with a plume of blue smoke when Regina’s teeth came down on the hippogriff that branded Mal’s breast over her heart. She squirmed when Regina traced every feather and curve with her tongue in delicate swirling licks. Always around but never quite giving the contact Mal needed where she needed it.

Her fingers did the same. Tracing the curve and weight of Mal’s breast in her hand. Feather light strokes of fingers and the shiver inducing drag of sharp nails so gently over silk skin.

Mal’s hips rocked up despite her intentions to remain aloof and punish Regina a little for her foolishness thirty years ago. She ground up against Regina’s hip and growled in approval when Regina’s hand began the slow and winding trail down.

Her fingers trailed in wicked circles, lower and lower. The silk soft slide of fingertip clockwise and the simmering zing of her nails on the widdershins stroke. Down and down over the heave of her ribs, the simmer of her quivering stomach muscles, the sharp plane of her hip and Mal practically levitated off the bed when Regina’s fingers _finally_ dipped between Mal’s legs.

Regina chuckled into Mal’s skin, still teasing a nipple with her tongue and teeth and Mal would have growled but she simply did not have the breath for it.

Regina’s fingers continued to tease and Mal became increasingly more desperate. She squirmed beneath her wife, careful not to dislodge her but ever more aware of the storm roiling beneath her skin just as it thundered louder overhead.

“Wait.” Regina lifted her head suddenly.

Mal very nearly screamed in frustration.

“Is the storm how I knocked you up in the first place?”

“What?” Mal tried not to snap but _ye gods_.

“The storm.” Regina repeated as if to a dim student of her own. “Lily was made on a night like this and whilst I’m not saying ‘never’ I’m definitely saying ‘not tonight’.”

It took Mal an embarrassingly long moment to piece all of that together but Regina, despite her conversational tone, was two fingers deep and rather frustratingly _not moving_.

“No. This is…it’s complicated.”

“Use small words then. Anything less is just irresponsible.”

“ _Wife- -!”_

“Yes?” Regina smirked with a saccharine innocence but her fingers curled inside Maleficent and the dragon fell back to the bed with a whimper. “You were saying?”

“ _Evil._ ” Mal growled.

“Not a title earned for my skills in the kitchen.” Regina leaned down and bit Mal on the nipple to remind her who was on top.

For now.

Regina must have seen mutiny in Mal’s eyes because she just smirked knowingly and swiped her thumb over Mal’s clit reducing her to the consistency of putty.

“Our magics and our cycles need to be in synch. They are NOT right now.”

“How does that happen?” Regina twirled her thumb over Mal’s clit in reward for the information and Mal’s hips quivered.

“Time. Happenstance. Ritual. Any of the above.” Mal was becoming increasingly desperate. Her hips rocking up into Regina’s hand.

“So it doesn’t really _happen_ by accident?”

“Not typically. The storm was…a confluence of unlikely events. Us both being dragons, you flying with me for so long as we strafed the storm…you were magnificent by the way.” Mal panted, reached up to stroke her fingers over Regina’s cheek and into her hair. “Still are.”

“I try.” Regina allowed herself to be pulled down into a deep and wet kiss. Mal was _delicious_ when she was desperate like this.

She forgot all of her practiced seduction and became nothing but raw animal need. She could be rough and destructive like this so she tended not to do so often but Regina adored reducing her to such a state where she was begging, where she was desperate. Simply because the desperation led to ferocity and Mal was never more beautiful than when she was famished.

Regina let herself tumble into Mal, her questions done for the night. She could ask more later on tonight or in the morning when Mal was in a more pliable mood. Her goal was met, no more accidents between them.

Regina adored their daughter but she was in no way ready for another kittling just yet and fully intended to be prepared for the next one.

Which meant she could devote all of her current attention to her rather needy wife.

Regina redirected Mal’s hands when the dragon tried to flip her so she could take what she wanted. Regina didn’t think she was quite frenzied enough yet.

She batted Mal’s hands away and broke their kiss. She gentled the abandonment by pressing hot and smoking (literally) kisses to every inch of Mal she passed on her way down Maleficent’s body. She spread Mal’s legs wide and settled herself between them. She scored her nails in a scorching trail up Mal’s inner thighs and bent her head, adding her tongue to the play.

Mal’s back bowed up off the mattress when Regina dragged her steaming hot tongue over Mal’s clit. She whimpered when Regina pushed two fingers deep into her and curled them up towards that nerve jangling spot that was entirely unique to the human shape.

Mal was dimly aware of a small throb of magic, Regina had summoned something, but she was truly more distracted by the way Regina was sucking so expertly on Mal’s clit. It extended, Mal’s body as greedy for more sensation as she was, and Regina hummed a shivery laugh around Mal’s cock as she sucked it into her mouth.

Mal hissed red smoke in response to the shocking sensation as Regina swallowed her down. She added a third finger to the two already stretching Mal and Mal clawed at the sheets, ripping the silk, heedless of the expense.

Regina’s breath hitched as she kept the pressure on. Mal imagined that her other hand was busy between her own legs and she growled that she wasn’t the one making Regina gasp but she was held quite hostage by Regina’s mouth between her legs.

She twitched, her cock throbbing in Regina’s mouth, increasingly aware of Regina’s soft moans as she worked to pleasure herself and Mal. Maleficent arched on the bed, determined not to just lie there but then Regina gave _such_ a groan and Mal was helpless. The clamour in her body was too cacophonous to ignore, to function around, then Regina swallowed her right to the hilt and Mal’s brain was consumed in fire.

She screamed, she must have, thrashing beneath Regina’s mouth and hands and Regina laughed into her, sending her into a further spasm of burning pleasure. Mal’s claws raked Regina’s hair and she tried to gentle her hold but Regina was stronger now. Her skin tougher.

 _She could take it_.    

Mal sat up when Regina did, her limbs uncoordinated from her staggering orgasm but she was determined not to leave her mate behind.

“Come here.” Regina sat up on her knees and gripped Mal by the elbows, pulling her onto her lap.

Mal squeaked an ungainly sound when she felt something hard press against her thigh. Something hard that had _certainly_ not been there before.

“What is that?” Mal looked down between them and reached out to grasp the coal black appendage that rose from between Regina’s legs.

Regina’s head fell back and she grunted low in her throat.

“ _What is that?!_ ” Mal snatched her hand back when she found the black cock to be a completely alien material. Not flesh at all. Cool and slick and foreign.

“It’s a toy.” Regina pulled Mal closer, pressing a messy and panting kiss to her mouth. “I can’t change just parts of my body to match your physiology but the internet is a wonderful double ended thing. Now. Come here.”

Mal absorbed that for a moment.

“You mean there is a whole other…?” Mal grasped the ‘toy’ again and Regina whimpered, trembling on her knees when the movement of Mal’s hand apparently corresponded to the other half of the toy that Mal could not see.

She adapted to the situation very quickly, changing her grip and pushing the phallus deeper into Regina with a sudden heft.

“Mal!” Regina all but yelped and Mal chuckled wickedly. Ah, this she was familiar with. “Come _here_.” Regina tugged at her again.

“I’m right here.”

“I mean get on.” Regina exhibited that shocking strength again and clasped her hands under Mal’s thighs, bodily lifting her up onto Regina’s lap.

Mal went entirely stock still when she felt the toy cock nudge at her cunt. She gripped Regina’s shoulders wildly, claws sparking against her magic toughened skin and Regina stilled with understanding.

“You okay?”

Mal stayed perfectly still for a long moment, held up in Regina’s hold, her eyes wide with the possibility that she had just never considered. She breathed short and sharp breaths, considering her feelings and –slowly- nodded.

Regina smiled.

“I’ll go slow.”

Mal nodded hurriedly.

“We can stop any time you want. Just say.”

Mal nodded again.

“Say it.”

“I want to try.”

Regina grinned, rocking her hips and letting Mal take her own weight on her knees. Her legs were long enough to allow for it even over Regina’s kneeling frame. She put Mal in charge and let her control the pace.

Mal, seized by the sudden urge, took Regina’s face in her hands and pulled her into a devouring kiss.

Regina moaned and Mal lowered herself slowly, trusting Regina to know what to do with the damn toy because Mal hadn’t even realised that such things _existed_ in this prudish little world and she had to ask what the internet really was if it could bring about things like this and- - _ye gods_.

Mal tore her mouth from Regina’s panting raggedly, when the toy cock pushed into her. It felt larger than it looked and Mal shifted as she stretched around it. She had known, academically, that the female body was prepared for such things but she had never experienced it in the flesh. She had been perfectly happy with Regina’s mouth and hands but –as she sank even lower onto the thick toy- Mal began to see the appeal.

Regina’s back arched despite herself when Mal’s weight bearing down shifted the end of the rubber cock inside her. She gripped Mal’s hips, her nails biting into smooth skin and Mal all but purred, grinding herself right down onto Regina.

“Is this…what it feels like? For you?” Mal panted, adjusting to a whole new world of sensation. She had never felt so…so full.

She _liked it_.

“I imagine it’s a little different.” Regina panted. “I mean, you have more control over yours.”

Mal nearly choked on her own tongue when Regina reached between them and wrapped her slick fingers around Mal’s cock.

She growled, dragging her claws down Regina’s back as internal muscles she had never paid much mind to before suddenly had something to clasp to. She pressed a searing bite to Regina’s cheekbone and her hips bucked of their own accord.

“That’s it.” Regina grinned, her hand sliding up and down Mal’s cock. “Ride me.”

Mal twitched at Regina saying those words, struck anew by the role reversal, and cautiously rose up on her knees. The sensation of the cock pulling from her was dizzying but it was _nothing_ compared to the primal satisfaction of sinking back down onto it and taking it into the deepest part of her. Parts of her she hadn’t realised she possessed. Parts of her that Regina’s delicate fingers had never been able to reach and Mal understood then.

Regina wanted to be equals. She wanted to give Mal everything that Mal could give her.

And if she had to go on the double ended internets to do so then she would. In a heartbeat.

It was a delightful torture.

Every rise and fall of Mal’s hips pushed her cock in and out of Regina’s fist. Plunged the toy cock deep in and out of her. The whole toy rocking, mimicking the motion into Regina’s own body and Mal couldn’t _feel_ what it was doing to Regina but she could see it. She could see the sweat glow on her skin, see her breathing deepen, hitch and change and –with a sudden burst of inspiration- Mal’s magic took hold of the toy, giving her a _much_ better degree of control.

Regina groaned when all of Mal’s knowledge on what drove Regina wild suddenly inhabited the rubber dildo she had bought. Mal’s magic overtook the slight hold Regina’s had maintained over the dildo and that left Regina free to much better enjoy the bed play.

Anything practiced fell away when Regina leaned forward to bite down onto Mal’s brand. Mal’s entire body rose and fell in a frenzy of movement. Her magic rocking the dildo between them giving them both the full benefit of it with every rock of her hips and jolt of her magic. Regina squirmed beneath her wife and struggled to breathe when Mal’s hands seemed to be everywhere. Her mouth following not far behind.

Searing kisses and jolting bites. The press of hot skin on skin, magic clouding between them, thunder booming overhead, lightning thrashing and Mal drove it all higher and higher until Regina was _begging_ for release.

Mal’s hand speared into her hair, wrenching her head back, and her teeth laid over the purple dragon brand on Regina’s neck.

Regina screamed, grinding up against Mal, her body on fire. Sheets smouldering, embers panting from between her lips as she twisted in the throes of Mal’s agony of ecstasy.

Mal shivered over her, quieter, but right there with her and they fell into one another. Their bodies slick and heaving with every breath.

“That was…” Regina whimpered when Mal shifted.

“New.” Mal grinned at her, gently pulling the dildo from Regina and then quite deliberately flinging it across the room.

“Hey, I…” Regina set a mental note to remind herself to find that and hide it later. She was cut off from doing so then by Mal grasping her by the shoulders and looking her dead in the eye.

“New. Appreciated. Though unnecessary.”

Regina, still a little scattered from the mind numbing orgasm, just blinked at her.

“You are enough. You always have been. You stopped being my student a long time ago. You are simply mine now. As I am yours.”

Regina opened her mouth to refute that but found herself rather enamoured with the idea.

“Besides, it is now my turn to prove that _I_ am more than enough.”

Regina yelped when Mal shoved her over onto her back and prowled over her with a wicked intent in her eyes.

She thought about protesting, that had _not_ been the reason she had bought the dildo but…well, Mal was fired up now.

 …and who was she to steal a dragon’s thunder?     

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, happy new year. 
> 
> If y'all have any prompts, drop them in the box below. 
> 
> You never know, I may actually take you up on one some day. 
> 
> *laughs uproariously*
> 
> Apologies for mistakes. I did NOT beta this. 
> 
> Or even read it, really.


	5. O Brother Where Art Thou

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Mal...happens. 
> 
> Sorry for being so absent these days, folks. I've been chipping away at things. And of occasion going back and destroying things in order to rebuild them but BETTER. 
> 
> I have the technology. 
> 
> Anyway, I thought it was Clutch's turn to be updated but I'm a little hazy as to whether I got the order right but, hey, baby dragons, what's not to love?
> 
> Enjoy.

**O Brother Where Art Thou**

 

**_The Grocery Store…_ **

 

“ _CHOO!”_ Henry sneezed so hard that he folded in half and his feet actually left the floor.

Lily squeaked in surprise and concern. She clung tighter to her brother, wings wrapped around his shoulders, tail around his waist and all twenty claws shredding holes in his sweater.

“Do _not_ drop her.” Mal warned in a low voice and Regina promptly elbowed her in the gut with a grunt from the dragon.

“I’m not going to drop her.” Henry scowled, offended and shifted Lily higher against his chest.

His baby kittling sister harrumphed at being so rudely jostled but got over her fright from Henry’s sneeze quickly enough and went back to chewing on the small tyre he held in his hand for exactly that purpose. Lily was at her happiest when she was mauling something and better the industrial strength rubber than anyone’s shirt collar which happened to be her second favourite target for gumming.

“I knew you should have stayed in bed.” Regina sighed, regretting caving to Henry’s insistence that he was fine.

He’d been lain low with the flu for nearly a week now and –tempted though Regina was to simply purge the virus from his body- she knew it would only hurt his immune system in the long run. Best to let it run its course, no matter how distressing she found it that her son was sick.

Still, he’d been insistent that he was fine and could go to the grocery store with them because he needed _out_ of the house and away from the fussing of everyone and knew that Mal at least would treat him as she always did (with disdainful tolerance) no matter how pathetic he looked.

“I’m fine.” Henry insisted and sniffed. He knew better than to scrub his sleeve over his nose because then his mom would freak.

“Ah-ah! Lily, no!” Regina lunged, clapping her hand around Lily’s snout and preventing her daughter from licking her brother’s nose in an oh-so helpful manner.

Lily grumbled, she had only been trying to help, but she let herself be distracted by the tyre again, this time in Regina’s hand, so Henry could wipe his nose with a tissue and another sniffle.

“One of us should take her.” Mal huffed out an annoyed breath and was currently wondering why in the seven hells she had insisted on tagging along for this trip.

Regina had been fussing over Henry for the whole week that he had been ill, despite Mal’s assurances that he wouldn’t die from whatever stupid lurgies that his puny body couldn’t fight off. Regina knew that, of course she did, but that didn’t stop her worrying and she had been running herself ragged looking after both Lily and Henry so Mal had given up on her nest building for the time being and returned to the manor in order to help.

Things would vastly improve, in her opinion, if anyone bothered to _let_ her help.

“I’m fine.” Henry told her, taking the tyre back from Regina and hurriedly stepping away from both of them. “I’m not going to drop her and she’s super warm. It makes my chest feel better.”

_That_ killed off any desire that Regina had to take Lily into her arms and Mal rolled her eyes.

The dragon could appreciate manipulation, she was a _dragon_ after all, but the way Regina let herself be conned by the little meatbag every. Time. Was more than a little frustrating because Mal _knew_ she was smarter than that. Mal would not have been mated to or even reproduced with an idiot so she was baffled as to why Regina let her adopted progeny treat her in such a way.

Then again, considering what _else_ the little bugger had gotten away with, Mal supposed she should be more grateful that Henry seemed to be lessening in such behaviours.

Henry dissolved into a coughing fit that came deep from within his chest and Mal grimaced. That sounded HORRIBLE. She was glad that she wasn’t mortal and –whilst she didn’t overly like Henry by any stretch- she felt sympathy for the little wretch as he turned his head to cough into his shoulder with great whooping breaths.

“Enough!” Her patience snapped and Mal abandoned the little wire cart she had been bidden to push and strode over to Henry. “Give her to me.”

Something in Mal’s voice made it clear to Henry that protesting would not be wise and she hoisted Lily from his arms. She smiled a little when Lily nipped at her chin in a kittling kiss and then bundled the baby into Regina’s arms with a wide eyed look from her lover but Mal was _done_ with watching all the fussing and denial of being frail and mortal. She wanted to go home and curl up in front of the magic mirror that showed her the Dreadful Pennies and the Critical Uck so Regina could sit on her and feed her the popped corn.

Henry yelped when Mal took him by the arm and hoisted him up over her back. She had seen him do this with the idiot prince as they had played and it seemed the most efficient way to tote the bratling around with his overshort legs.

Henry scrambled to stay aboard when Mal took him by the knees and hoisted him higher over her back. He wound his arms around her neck and was more than a little surprised when it seemed to be entirely effortless to her to hold him. He wasn’t huge for a ten year old and she was really tall for a lady but he had expected a bit more of a huff from her at his weight. Especially considering that he wasn’t disproportionally light like a dragon kittling would be.

“Oh, you’re super warm.” Henry clung more tightly to her when he realised the benefits of being in Mal’s clutches and she snorted green smoke but made no further comment.

Regina propped Lily on her hip and smiled at Mal.

“What?” The dragon snapped. “This is the only place I can put him where I do not have to look at him.”

Regina’s lips twitched but she said nothing and took over driving the grocery cart. She also didn’t say anything when Mal began to…well, the closest translation for the sound was a purr. Similar to the crooning sound that Lily made when she was happy but deeper and mostly below the range of human hearing. It was comparable to the way that cats might purr to heal themselves as dragons had that ability but could also transfer it onto others.

It would not fight the infection in Henry’s body for him but it would soothe his symptoms and make it easier for him to do so himself.

Regina turned away before she could give into the temptation to take a photo with her cell phone and cautiously loosened her hold on Lily. The kittling gave no indication that she felt the lack of support and easily held herself up without Regina’s help. With both hands free, it was much easier to steer the cart into the next aisle and expedite this little shopping trip because she could tell that Mal’s tolerance was lessening and lessening when it came to being surrounded by people and fluorescent lighting.

Though ‘surrounded’ was hardly accurate.

The locals gave the Evil Queen plenty of space to herself even when they were feeling hostile but, with a dragon at her side, no one would come within twenty feet of her. Especially when Mal had that look on her face that obviously indicated to everyone else that she was considering barbecue for dinner.

So when they entered an aisle, everyone else tended to find places elsewhere to be.

“What cereal do you want?” Regina turned, speaking to Henry but Mal answered anyway.

“Chocolate.”

“You don’t even _eat_ cereal.” Regina frowned at her.

“I was assured there were chocolate kinds. I want the chocolate.” Mal nodded firmly and Regina arched a brow at Henry, well aware of who had done the assuring.

She also knew that his reasoning would be that if Regina bought chocolate cereal for Mal then he was likely to be able to sneak some.

Good luck.

“Chocolate?” Regina glanced at the multitude of boxes on display. At least half of which had chocolate in them in one form or another. “Any particular _kind?_ ”

“Brat,” Mal turned her head to half see Henry, “what kind?”

“Cocopops.”

Mal blinked and turned to stare blankly at the shelves. Henry remembered after a moment that reading was difficult for her and pointed. She could spot a baby rabbit in tall grass at a mile but primary coloured lettering three feet away was tough for her.

“Three shelves up, the yellow box.”

Mal prowled across the aisle and leaned so Henry could pick up a box. He held it to her face so she could sniff without needing to be told. He had noticed that she tended to smell things that were new and had a fairly kneejerk response to things that didn’t smell good which may or may not involve setting fire to them.

Whale had learned to hang around near fire extinguishers pretty damn quickly after being introduced to Mal.

“This is good. I shall eat this instead of the popped corn.” Mal nodded and Regina groaned.

Mal was a popcorn _fiend_. She loved the stuff, especially if oreos were mixed in, and it was more than a little infuriating that she ate half her weight in it at any given time and didn’t gain a single pound. Oh, to have a body that couldn’t process sugars.

“Fine.” Regina took the box from Henry and dumped it into the cart. Along with four others. She looked up at Henry. “And I suppose you’re willing to have it with soya milk?”

“Don’t you threaten me.” Henry sniffed.

“Cream.” Mal nodded firmly. Cream was almost as good as popcorn apparently. “It will go with the cream.”

Regina just rolled her eyes. She’d have been better off just buying a herd of cows but then she’d only wake up in the morning to find that her darling wife had eaten half of them in the night and then there was the blood on the lawn and…nope. Gallon jugs it was.

Regina hadn’t even known that you could _get_ gallon jugs of double cream but apparently the temptation of the money that came with her demand meant the supply was made available.

Thank god the dairy had agreed to deliver to her house or the trips to the store would have been multiple times a day.

Still, Lily seemed to charm everyone she met and it had earned Regina a bulk discount so she supposed she couldn’t complain and had even gone so far as to do some rearranging for the dairy’s taxes that had put them in an even better mood with her.

How odd that she had never been a corrupt politician until _after_ it had become known that she was a heinous villain.

“What is next?” Mal half turned to see Henry again and he reached back to rummage in his pocket.

He had been put in charge of the list because Mal couldn’t understand Regina’s writing any more than to say it was pretty, Regina was occupied with Lily (who was definitely a Soft Mommy’s girl) and Henry was going to bite someone if he didn’t get something to _do_ other than lie in bed and eat soup.

Sure, it sounded good in theory but the practicality of it quickly drove him crazy no matter how many comic books people brought him or movies he watched. He’d never _needed_ to be outside before and now he felt like he’d hike up a mountain of only to be out of range of being dragged back into bed by the nearest well-meaning adult.

So he fumbled the list out of his pocket and the pen for scoring things off and peered around Mal’s head so he could see what he was scribbling out as he did so.

“Uh, we’ve got cereal and hot sauce and we’re apparently not getting bananas,” Mal had hissed somewhat extensively and nearly set fire to the stand of them when Regina had tried to add them to the cart, “tissues, shampoo, conditioner –got that, got that, got THAT- aaaaannd, next thing is ‘meats’.”

“Heh.” Mal smirked. Her favourite part. She got to try things at the butcher’s stall in the store. The butcher was also Memorable Peasantry Joe and one of the few faces that Mal made it her business to recognise.

Regina rolled her eyes and then frowned when her phone did that bleating thing that irritated Mal. The tiny box inevitably attempted to summon Regina away from her and no matter how many times Mal hid, ate, burned or otherwise destroyed the damn thing, another one rose up to take its place.

Mal scowled at the offending black box and snorted green smoke when Regina’s face took on that expression. The expression that inevitably led to ‘sorry, honey, but we have to…’

“Damn it, Lily’s appointment is in fifteen minutes. We took too long. Sorry, honey, but we have to…” Regina’s voice died into nothing when she looked up from her cell phone and found both Henry and Mal watching her with matching glowers. “What?”

“Meats.” Mal looked mulish.

“We can get meats later, it’s time for Lily’s appointment with Doctor Dolittle. Let’s pay for what we have and…”

“This is a waste of time.” Mal growled. “Lily had an appointment _last week_. I remember. I was there. He tried to stab her. I bit him.”

“Yes. You did.” Regina sighed. “Which is why you’ll be waiting in the _car_.”

Mal’s eyes snapped with magic with her irritation.

“I am not a _child_!”

 Henry yelped as Mal unceremoniously dumped him in the shopping cart.

“I have roamed multiple worlds for longer than most dynasties have lasted and you can’t trust me to provide for you and our daughter? Everything is boxed or crated or wrapped in this place, I don’t have to kill anyone I just have to hand the money over. I can _do that_.”

Regina blinked at Mal. Her dragon had been so content to follow her around…actually, that wasn’t true. She _tolerated_ shadowing Regina. She’d much rather be off exploring on her own but she knew it made Regina nervous for her to be in this strange land when she was well known and equally disliked.

“Do you know what to get?” Regina wasn’t sure. Mal wasn’t a people person at the best of times and she’d had to put up with Henry for nearly a week now…

“The boy can read the list.” Mal waved at Henry in the cart who was rearranging the cereal boxes so that they propped him up more comfortably. He sniffed and nodded in agreement.

“You want me to leave Henry with you?” Regina’s eyebrows shot up.

“I won’t harm him.” Mal scowled, beginning to become truly offended now.

“That’s not…” Regina huffed out a sigh.

“It is an inefficient use of our time to go everywhere together. I can get the…things and take them back to the manor. You can meet us there with Lily where she will NOT have been stabbed and you might actually be able to sit down for five consecutive minutes.” Mal folded her arms over her chest with a thud, daring Regina to refute her logic.

Regina bit her lip and mulled it over.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Mal around Henry. She did, she’d trust Mal with Henry’s life, Mal would never do anything to hurt Henry…but he _did_ irritate her.

A lot.

And when Mal was irritated things tended to…devolve.

“It’s just shopping, mom. We’ve done it a million times. I know where all the stuff is and Maleficent has all the money. We’ll be fine.” Henry coughed once and Mal snorted a hot plume of magic over him. It clung to his clothes with a green shimmer but it warmed him right down to his bones.

“You’re sure?” She looked at Mal.

“Lily’s appointment is in ten minutes.” Mal said stonily and Regina sighed.

“Alright. Just don’t…happen to anyone.” Regina stretched up and kissed Mal on the corner of her mouth. Mal didn’t even bend down a little for her.

Oh, she was pissed.

“That goes for both of you.” Regina smoothed down Henry’s hair and kissed him on the forehead.

“Yeah, mom.” Henry croaked but he managed a smile for her.

“ _Mreep!”_ Lily chirped when she realised she was being left out and Henry reached up to tickle her chin in farewell and Mal loomed suddenly behind Regina, reaching around the smaller woman to stroke the feathery spines on the arch of Lily’s neck.

“Goodbye, little one.” Mal murmured in Regina’s ear and bent further around her so that she could press a kiss to her cheek. “I will not ‘happen’ to anyone.”

“Alright.” Regina smiled, kissed Mal once more and then hurried off to go to the car and maybe even make it to Lily’s appointment on time.

Mal watched Regina go and then turned back to the shopping cart. She looked down at Henry and he sat there, tucked into the corner of it, looking even more pathetic than usual.

“ _You_ should have gone to the healer.” Mal took hold of the cart and shoved it off down the aisle. “You’re almost grey in places.”

“They’re not stabbing her, you know.” Henry sniffed. “They’re vaccines, they’ll keep her from getting diseases in this world that you wouldn’t have an immunity to pass on to her.”

“I have had steel puncture my flesh. I have no desire to see my daughter suffer the same.”

“She won’t even remember it and the needle’s pretty tiny.”

“Looked disproportionately large to me.” Mal huffed and propped her elbows on the pushbar of the cart.

“I’ve had them. You saying Lily’s not as tough as me?” Henry cocked his head to the side and Mal narrowed her eyes at him.

“You might have inherited Regina’s sharp wit, bratling, but not her charisma. You well know that Lily is superior to you in every fashion.”

“Granted, but it’s not just for her. It’s for everyone she comes into contact with. Mom wouldn’t want her making other kids sick and I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t either.”

Mal pushed the cart lazily around the corner and mulled that over.

True, she had no desire to contend with the mob if Lily was accused of being a plague carrier because of their puny mortal constitutions. If Henry had taught her one thing in the last week it was that there was a disproportionate amount of _fussing_ over the ill.

Mal couldn’t really see why. They were all going to die in a few short decades anyway. Why get hysterical over a factual inevitability?

“If you _really_ don’t like the needles, maybe there’s another way. They have these air syringes now, it’s like a narrow burst of air that punches through the skin instead of the needle. No steel involved.”

“That’s barbaric!” Mal reared back from the cart and glared down at him. “Why would anyone even think of something like that?!”

“Uh…it’s more hygienic? I dunno, I saw it on an episode of _CSI_.” Henry shrugged. “Maybe mom can teleport it into her bloodstream or something then. Give her the antibodies that way.”

Mal frowned but it was a thoughtful expression rather than the stubborn scowl that seemed to occupy her face most of the time.    

“Antibodies?”

“They’re like…you know the difference between red and white blood cells?”

Mal frowned.

“Okay, here we go…”

Henry spent the next ten minutes giving Mal a lesson on how blood cells, antibodies and immunity worked. She knew most of it, by different words and coming from a different reasoning but she knew much of how the body worked (no matter which shape it was) and she had learned how to build a body’s defences long ago. An immortal constitution evolved at an accelerated rate and the immune system of a dragon is more proactive than reactive as a mortal’s was.

That did not –however- mean they could not _carry_ diseases and the bratling was right. Lily would need –what was the word- inoculated against such things.

“So…if _I_ were to be infected with these diseases, I could pass the ‘antibodies’ onto her?”

“Well, some of them, but only before she was born. It happens when the baby is inside the mom.” Henry hoped this was right. He had been paying attention in science class but there was a lot of this stuff to remember.

He kept the conversation going, keeping Mal involved in it and distracting her further by pointing out more stuff that they needed but it got more and more difficult to focus on distracting her when he himself was becoming distracted.

Distracted and worried.

“Uhm, Maleficent?”

“Yes?” Mal answered absently, more interested in finding out what a Twinkie was. They smelled absolutely _noxious_ even through the plastic.

“There’s a guy following us.”

“I know.” Mal didn’t look up from the Twinkie packet.

“I don’t know him.”

“It’s alright.” Mal glanced at him. “Wait here.”

Mal straightened up, eyes wide with alarm when Mal just… _wandered off!_

Mal rounded the end of the aisle, Twinkie packet in hand, and disappeared from Henry’s sight.

Henry whipped back around to see the man standing at the end of the aisle. He gave up all pretence of innocently shopping and happening to be in their wake and straightened with a frown, looking after Mal’s hasty exit. He started down the aisle towards Henry, padding slowly and quietly, his half full basket dangling forgotten from one hand.

He drew level with Henry in the shopping cart and didn’t appear to notice the boy at all.

Nor did he notice Mal on top of the shelves.

She was absolutely silent, prowling over from the next aisle along and her green and purple eyes intent on the stranger.

Henry had said that he didn’t know the man but he looked familiar to _Mal_.

He was tall and broad shouldered. Evidently strong and it was the solidity of functional muscle rather than that of a body builder. He had high cheekbones and piercing blue eyes under strong brows. His hair was a wild mop of caramel coloured curls, his jaw was square and his chin had the Superman dimple that Henry secretly hoped he grew into. He seemed to be about Mal’s age, Henry thought. 

He was dressed poorly. His cream coloured cableknit sweater was patched at the elbows and shoulders, his jeans were near white with age due to use more than fashion and he wore heavy clomping boots that had to have steel toecaps in them somewhere.

He completely ignored Henry, not interested in the slightest in the Evil Queen/Saviour’s son and truly more intent on following carefully after the blonde woman that seemed so damned familiar to him.

Mal dropped on him with no warning whatsoever.

She landed silently _right_ behind him, fisting a hand in the scruff of his sweater and the belt of his jeans and hurled him up. Straight up.

Through the roof.

Henry’s eyes flew wide when the store suddenly had a new skylight and gaped at Mal.

“Wait here.” Mal told Henry firmly and then took off after the stranger.

She just bounded up through the hole in the roof in a super leap that would have put the Hulk to shame and disappeared into the blue sky beyond.

_Wait here_.

“Yeah _right!”_

Henry scrambled from the shopping cart and took off at a dead run for the store’s exit.

Like he was going to miss this.

 

**_The Car Lot…_ **

 

The man grunted as he smashed into the asphalt of the car lot hard enough to punch through the thick black covering and crunched into the dirt beneath. He dragged a furrow into the lot for thirty yards before he stopped and he grimaced at the rags of his clothes that hung from him as a result.

His sweater was _ruined_.      

Truth be told, he’d had much worse, but this was his favourite sweater.

With a snarl, he uncoiled to his feet and his lips lifted from over sharp teeth when the female landed in a cat like crouch twenty paces from him.

“Your name, snake.” She hissed.

His only response was a guttural snarl that rattled the windows of the store and set off a few car alarms. His growl was much bigger than he was. Certainly much bigger than she was.

Mal’s eyes narrowed at that sound and she watched the stranger’s eyes change. He was another dragon, certainly. It was unmistakable under the scent of pine that he wore like a cologne. He lived in the hills that surrounded Storybrooke, that was obvious to her, but she recognised nothing more than that.

Still, she was certain that she had _seen him before_.

“I will have your name.” She demanded again.

Maleficent was unaccustomed to asking for anything twice. Hells, she was unaccustomed to asking. Period. Particularly as the oldest sentient dragon from their home world. Few would think to question her, never mind snarl in her face.

“Why should I give it?!” He spat at her.

The whites of his human eyes were bleeding red. The blood vessels bursting until the white was entirely subsumed by crimson. His blue irises, flecked with –was that purple stars around the pupil- glowed lurid from within that crimson and it was an altogether unsettling combination. In truth he looked more demonic than draconian and a faint bell rang in Mal’s ancient memory.

She had seen such eyes before…

She rolled her shoulders, forcing herself to relax. She was a mother now, she couldn’t go about eating what was left of her kind, especially a sentient one like her. She inhaled a deep breath and let it loose devoid of smoke.

She could do this. She could have a conversation…with a bull dragon.

Mal’s jaw clenched until it clicked.

A bull dragon in _her territory_.

“Because I am asking. _Politely_.” Mal smiled with her lips clamped closed. Showing her teeth would not be wise right now. “For a limited time only.”

“You threw me out of the store.” The bull’s nostrils flared, black smoke gouting with his exhale.

Mal’s chin tilted down at the insult but she tightened her grip on her flimsy control and spoke with a carefully measured tone.

“You were too close. I did not know you.”

“I was curious.” The bull rumbled, he was still tense, his eyes fully draconian. Still, he seemed willing to listen. “I know you.”

“I am the Dragon of the West. Everyone knows me. What is more interesting is that _I_ know _you_.” Mal corrected him, with an attempt at a mild tone.

The fire glowing from within his chest told her that her success had been limited.

His head tilted up and he scented her again.

Mal cocked a brow at the forward action. He wasn’t very practiced at this human malarkey at all. If she had to guess, she would say that he had only recently gained the form but…that made no sense. He had moved as a man effortlessly. His gait, the muscle conformation, even the _hair_ had been a perfect imitation and Mal knew from grinding experience that it took _decades_ to nail just the bipedal motion of walking.

He did not _make sense_ and that bothered Mal. It bothered her a lot.

“You smell of witch.”

“Sorceress.” Mal corrected idly. His eyes remained dragon like. He had not fully relaxed and so neither could she.

“Whatever.” The bull did not look impressed but he –slowly- took a step up and out of the crater she had put him in.

Mal tensed, she couldn’t help it. He was huge, she could sense it, and he was _moving_ and he was _in her territory_. Her family was here. Storybrooke was small enough as it was without a fucking bull dragon taking up valuable space.

Perhaps she’d have relaxed again. She’d kept her temper when Charming had been waving a sword at her on the football field after all, perhaps the bull would have stepped back and felt like he was encroaching less on her personal space, perhaps the boy wouldn’t have come tearing around the corner and shouted.

But he had.

“Elliot!”

Mal twitched in surprise, she had not expected anyone to approach (well she had, but this boy was NOT Henry) and her head whipped around to view this new intruder. The whites of her eyes swirled green and that was threat enough for the bull.

With a _booming_ roar the bull dragon launched himself at her.

Mal spun, her hands coming up to catch him but she stalled again when he _changed_.

The bones of his skull fractured and pushed outwards. New razor teeth exploded into the place of blunt human ones. His skin peeled back and sloughed away as muscle and scales replaced it. Horns burst from his head, a tail roped from his spine, wings unfurled from his back and he just…broke himself.

Mal gaped in horror.

She had never seen a change like that. He’d warped his very meat and bones. Not a fluid change of magic and energy but he’d _shattered_ himself and rebuilt from the slurry that had been left.

It had to have been agonising.

She was stunned. Gobsmacked. In three millennia she’d never thought of changing that way. She’d never come across _anything_ that might change that way. That could _survive_ changing that way. The shock alone must have been near fatal but…the bull managed it.

Managed it and got the drop on her.

She had been so taken aback by the process of the change that she had failed to implement her own and was now facing being swatted like a bug.

The bull roared. Great bone crushing jaws gaping wider than Mal thought possible, the glow of red fire deep in his gullet, and rushed her in an avalanche of emerald scales and liquid metal muscle. He pounced on her and swatted down with one huge talon, intending to simply crush her puny human form into the asphalt of the car lot.

Well, she might look human but she wasn’t.

Mal braced herself and _caught_ his paw as it swung down at her. Her feet were punched into the grey of the car lot beneath her almost to the knee, but he didn’t crush her.

Mal’s eyes blazed, magic billowed from her, but she couldn’t change with him on top of her. She roared, her voice bigger than her human body would allow and _heaved_.

The bull squawked, not expecting to be put over Mal’s shoulder from her hold on one talon but something about being bigger and falling harder raced through his angry red mind as he was sent sprawling.

All seventy feet of him.

Mal would have winced when the bull dragon was sent bowling into a row of parked cars and crushed them like toys, but she was rather busy. Her magic exploded over her skin, her body became fluid and she stretched out into her natural form. The smoke cleared, her eyes opened and that was _much_ better.

The bull rolled with his momentum, shoving cars away with shunts of his wings and his great clubbed tail. Mal’s brows rose at that, she’d never seen the like.

He was impressive, she would give him that. Longer than her by a full ten paces and fully twice as broad across his bullish shoulders. He was a deep green in colour, everything between emerald and midnight pine, with gold along his flanks and his underbelly was a deep pink in colour. It matched his talons and the Mohawk of razor horns that arced from between his eyes to the nape of his skull.

Where Mal was sleek and almost vulpine, he was low slung and feline. His skull was boxy with jaws powerful enough to crush even her bones. His tail lashed once, folding a truck in half with a sickening _crump_ , and his growl shook the ground.

Mal showed all of her teeth and hissed in return.

His wings unfurled, blocking the sun from finding her and Mal’s third eyelid slid over her eyes. The frills and spines framing her head and neck flattening, her wings plastering to her back. The very tip of her tail twitched. She’d give him nothing sensitive to lock those mastiff jaws around.

He hurled himself at her.

Mal ducked his charge, he was _fast_. She slithered under his arching neck, raking her claws over his instep and twisted away from the snap of his jaws that sounded like cracking mountains. She spun over her tail, rearing up and climbing him like a tree.

He bellowed at the insult, dragons did not _grapple_ but Mal had spent quite a bit of time as a human and was a survivalist to her core. She cared little for the ways of any people that might lead to her death and slashed at the membrane of his wing, intending to ground him. She didn’t want this fight going anywhere.

Mal hissed in surprise when the feathery scales over his wings were actually a functional armour. She was further surprised when he snapped out that wing and caught her in the gut, sending her sprawling. She had not expected such _strength_. She certainly couldn’t punt another dragon with the strength of one wing. Certainly not one of close to her own size.

Mal tumbled over her shoulder and flashed back to her feet. She ducked another charge, just barely this time, and caught a rake from those ridiculous pink horns over her shoulder for her troubles. She ducked frantically again when she nearly forgot about that tail and it very nearly took her head off. She slithered over the asphalt of the car lot and then sprang up into the air.

A single clap of her wings, enough to take her up onto the roof of the store. It creaked alarmingly under her weight, but she wasn’t staying. She whirled on her heels and drove herself back down towards him.

Her chin tucked and the bony base of her horns _cracked_ into the bridge of his broad nose.

The bull went slack, stunned for an all important second and Mal gripped him with both foreclaws and wrenched with a coughing yell of effort. He was sent sprawling into the side of the building, hunching in on himself with pain.

He was big, he was strong, and he was fast but he was _no_ match for sheer ferocity when it came to the Dragon of the West.

Mal hissed, her eyes on fire with blood lust and she darted forward, intent on finishing the job. She had no notion that he was one of the few remaining of their endangered species (she was one of the primary reasons for its endangerment, nothing can kill a dragon save for another dragon after all) she just wanted the kill. She wanted the intruder out of her territory. She wanted her family SAFE.

He opened his eyes, looking up at her, his ears pinned back in a sudden stark and terribly honest moment of fear.

Mal froze.

She ground to a halt. Stunned. She blinked, disbelieving her keen raptor vision because that was impossible.

She stared at him, eyes almost comically wide, and her tail slapped down onto the ground, even her wings went slack.

She knew that face. Those eyes. She knew that fearful expression. She had seen it before, after all. Over a thousand years ago but some things cannot be forgotten.

Not even if she wished it so a thousand times over.

“Your name!” She shook herself from her shock and demanded of him.

The big bull blinked up at her, stunned at what seemed like mercy. Surely not. Dragons did not know mercy.

“Tell me your name or die!” She roared in her native language. Her claws shrieking sparks over the ground to underline the order.

“Elliot!”

Mal reared back when the boy, the boy from before, the one that had run towards dragons and _wasn’t_ Henry. He flung his skinny arms wide, planting himself between her and the bull dragon, his chest heaving and reeking of terror.

“His name is Elliot.” The human spoke draconian flawlessly.

Not even Regina could manage that effortlessly.

“Elliot is not a dragon name!” Mal hissed down at him, her teeth bared because she felt something very like fear then.

“It is the one I chose for myself.” The bull crept towards his boy, for he surely must belong to the dragon to attempt to protect him. “I chose it when I realised I should have one. When…things suddenly had names.”

Mal stared down at the bull. Elliot.

“When did this happen?!” Mal’s wings hunched, making her already huge form look even larger but it was a self comforting gesture.

“The Curse did it. I was on the verge back in the Enchanted Forest and then when I awoke from the Curse…it was all there in my head.” Elliot, attempted to snake his head between Maleficent and the boy.

Sentience. He was talking about sentience.

Dragons were so long lived that they evolved within their own lifetimes. The magic becoming stronger in them, the cumulative knowledge piling up until they were not only nigh to unkillable but they began to realise…the world. They became aware. They took names, they learned speech and some of them even took human form.

The last trait was _rare_. Rarer than rare.

Mal’s chest was heaving as she stared down at the dragon. She tried to convince herself that it was the Curse. That Regina’s impossible magic had forced Elliot into a human form and this world’s dearth of magic meant that he had remained human along with every other denizen of this accursed town when by all rights a dragon would have turned back. First chance he got, a dragon would have retaken his natural form and took the skies because…because he was a dragon.

Mal swallowed hard, a curiously human motion in a dragon body and the spines and frills around her head and neck rattled ominously.

“Do not hurt him. He means no harm. He acted to protect me.”

Mal’s gaze landed heavily on the boy and she studied him. 

He was small, then again they all looked small from this vantage point, he might have been close to Henry’s age. Perhaps older or younger, Mal couldn’t tell from a reptile perspective. He had blonde hair, the same as Elliot in his human form. Though his was straight and hung around his face to his shoulders. He had a stringy kind of look to him. He wore battered clothes as Elliot had. His eyes were brown.

No dragon had brown eyes but…perhaps in human form.

“And you,” Mal lowered her head closer to the boy, “what are you?”

“Peter.” The boy inhaled deeply and drew himself up. “Elliot…Elliot looks after me. He is my dragon.”

Mal narrowed her eyes to lurid green slits.

“No dragon is owned.”

“They can gift themselves.” Elliot kept his supine form but she could see he was considering tackling her again. No bull in his prime would lie at the feet of a female for long.

Mal hissed.

“Turn back.”

Elliot froze.

“Turn back or I eat you _both_.” Mal growled thunderously. Perfectly serious.

Elliot was still for long moments and then he turned and –incredibly gently- nudged Peter away. Peter padded a few steps away and shifted from foot to foot nervously. He worried his lip between his teeth, staring worriedly up at Maleficent who looked poised to fall on them like the wrath of a primitive god.

Mal exhaled a curling plume of black smoke, her eyes narrowed to glowing gimlets and settled into the comfortable knowledge that, in certain primitive cultures, she _was_ a god.

Elliot collapsed back into his human form and Mal twitched in revulsion.

There really was no other word for it. He just seemed to fold in on himself. It was as uncomfortable to watch as his first transformation had been but Mal refused to look away. She blinked down at him when she saw that he had not managed clothes.

Peter shrugged out of his sweater and held it out to Elliot.

Elliot, now leaning back against the wall of the store, dropped the sweater over his lap and stayed precisely where he was.

“Maleficent! WHAT THE HELL?!”

Mal blinked at that _tone_ and turned her head to see Emma Swan hurrying across the car lot towards them. She skirted the truck that had been folded in half, her eyes going wide at the destruction, and slithered to a halt at Mal’s side.

She glared up at the huge purple dragon and then swung around to lay more blame on whoever else she could and went stock still when confronted with a naked blonde Adonis. Her mouth opened into a small ‘o’ of surprise and her eyebrows made a dash for her hairline. She blinked, her brain momentarily stalled and then clapped her face into her palm.

“I do not get paid enough for this.”

Mal swept her magic about herself like a cloak and rearranged herself back down to her human form. She stared down at Elliot, Peter now crouched at his side like a scrawny little sparrow. Now that she was closer to their scale, she could see that Peter was in fact older than Henry. In the very least he was longer. Taller. Whatever.

“ _Why_ are you naked?!” Emma demanded of Elliot, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“I don’t know how to make clothes out of magic.” Elliot looked stunned at being addressed first, his wary gaze still pinned to Maleficent.

“That is NOT an answer!” Emma looked disproportionately harassed. “Why do you not have clothes?!”

“They get eaten by the magic.” Peter hugged his arms about his knees and watched Emma with wide eyes.

Emma dragged her gaze from muscle upon muscle that seemed to make up the blonde god’s body and dragged her attention to the boy. She huffed out a breath and frowned, still not caught up. Personally, she blamed her hormones.

Deciding that she was getting nothing from that end, Emma whirled on Maleficent and folded her arms over her chest. She raised her eyebrows in a silent demand and was a little disconcerted when the expression that had always managed to get a rise out of Regina seemed to careen clean off Mal’s self possession.

Mal stared down at the man for a long moment and finally turned to Emma.

“He’s a dragon. He approached myself and Henry. I took…umbrage.”

“You trashed the grocery store.” Emma let loose a controlled breath through her nose. “This is one of TWO grocery stores in this Podunk town. We can’t afford _TO BREAK IT!”_

Maleficent half closed one eye in a near wince at Emma’s shrill tone and shrugged her shoulders.

“To be fair, there is minimal damage to the store. Most of it was restricted to the car corral.”

“Parking lot.” Emma corrected.

“Semantics.” Mal clipped back.

“So-o…what? I mean, he gave you the side eye and you roasted his clothes clean off him?” Emma tried something else and waved at Elliot. “Could you do something about that, by the way?”

“No…and I could. Respectively.”

“Will. You?” Emma gritted out.

Maleficent slid a narrow look at Elliot, who had tensed at the mention of Mal’s magic coming anywhere near him. Her jaw clenched so tightly that a muscle in it ticked.

“No.”

“Right.” Emma nodded shortly and rubbed a hand over her face. “Of course not, I mean, it’s not like this is making a bad impression or anything.”

“It’s just a human body.” Mal shrugged. She didn’t think the form particularly impressive (unless involved in very particular circumstances with her wife) and it made little difference to her how much cloth it was covered in (again, aside from aforementioned wifely circumstance).

“Well, no, it’s the first time you’ve been left unattended by Regina in a public place and _this is what you do!”_ Emma waved expansively and Mal froze.

Her promise not to _happen_ came back to her and her human face did an odd thing. It seemed to kind of… _scrunch_? Her shoulders crept up towards her ears and she glared at Emma for evoking this reaction.

“Don’t go trying to blame me. You had ONE job. NOT to happen to someone and look! Happening. All over the place!” Emma threw her hands up in the air.

“How do you know that?” Mal frowned at Emma, piecing together what had not been said. Her eyes narrowed. “Did Regina send you to _babysit_?”

“NO. Regina sent me to pick up you, Henry and the _groceries_ and where the hell is Henry because he’s usually hip deep in this kind of mess.” Emma cut herself off and began to frantically look for her part-time son. When she couldn’t see him in the epicentre of a destruction she began to have sickening imaginings of finding him in the blast radius.

“I’m here!” Henry appeared from the main doors of the store. “I stayed inside and watched through the windows.”

Maleficent and Emma blinked down at him.

Mal had been mentally preparing excuses to Regina about how she had managed to get Henry crushed under flying masonry and told herself that she was just glad not to have that fight about Henry being puny and mortal and not that she had been alarmed on behalf of the little pink twig in any way, shape or form.

“I’m sick.” Henry defended himself.

Truth be told, he had been exhausted by running from the back of the store to the front and by the time he had managed to get there it had been mostly over anyway. No reason to rush outside. Particularly when Maleficent had been hissing and smoking so much.

“Can…we go?”

Emma spun around to see Peter and –oh god- Elliot getting to their feet. Peter’s sweater wasn’t very big and it was having a hard time of covering much of Elliot at all.

Emma looked skyward and told herself she was paid to be observant and she was cataloguing for her inevitable report.

Maleficent’s snort told her that the dragon didn’t even believe that.

“No. Not naked.” Emma spurred herself into action when she realised Elliot was about to turn and walk away and she really didn’t think she could handle seeing all of that from the back.

“I will clothe you.” Maleficent managed the words eventually. “If you would prefer.”

Elliot stilled, evidently not exactly pleased at the offer. His blue eyes, still red where they should be white, darted to Emma and back to Maleficent.

“And I can go if I am clothed.”

“Sure. We’re insured for this one.” Emma shrugged her shoulders and jerked a thumb at Maleficent.

“We are?” Mal asked archly.

“It was _staggeringly_ easy to convince the underwriters to have to declared a natural disaster. Go figure.” Emma bit back.

“Very well.” Elliot’s patience for these females and their ‘banter’ was wearing thin. Not to mention he felt a distinct draft.

Mal flicked her fingers at him and midnight green smoke coiled around Elliot, dispersing to leave replicas of his original clothes behind. Pristine new ones.

He raised an eyebrow at that and the other perked up to join it in surprise when Mal looked away and spun her magic around Peter too. Replacing his clothes with repaired newer versions of themselves.

Elliot could not figure the why of it and he decided now was not the time. They both had children between them. He dipped his chin to Maleficent but his eyes never dropped from hers.

Maleficent looked coolly away from him and snorted green smoke.

Elliot decided that was as good as he was getting and took Peter’s shoulder in his hold, steering him away from the elder dragon and making a sharp exit.

Maleficent watched them both go. Her shoulders tensing as if she might hurl herself after them but then she slowly subsided.

“You really insured for Maleficent?” Henry looked up at Emma, sniffling a little.

“Hell no. I can’t afford the premiums.” Emma gusted a sigh. She lifted her arm and smiled when Henry ducked under it to lean against her side. “Which is why she’s going to fix EVERYTHING _.”_

“Oh?” Maleficent turned her attention back to Emma.

“Well, it’s this or I leave your ass to go home without groceries and Regina has to come here and clean up your mess.” Emma smiled winsomely at Maleficent and the dragon narrowed her eyes.

“I can still get the groceries.” She said stiffly.

“Oh, you think you’re not banned for life now? You think everybody doesn’t have the faeries on speed dial to whip up a spell to enforce said banishment? They’ve all been waiting for this opportunity and you just handed it to them on a silver platter.” Emma frowned, seeming to be horrifyingly _disappointed_ in Mal. “What set you off anyway?”

“I was provoked.” Mal gritted, the walls slamming up behind her eyes again.

“How? You don’t even like me.” Henry sniffed and rubbed at his nose.

“Regina loves you.” Mal snapped. “That is reason enough for me to keep you alive.”

Henry blinked up at her, evidently surprised.

“That was almost…nice.” Henry leaned against Emma again and considered. “If you fix the roof and the cars and everything, nicely like you did Elliot and Peter’s clothes, maybe Emma and me can get the groceries and tell everybody that you were trying to look out for me and it was a big misunderstanding. Maybe…mom doesn’t have to know.”

“I do not _lie_ to Regina. Nor should you.” Mal said stiffly. Still rattled. She felt like her skin no longer fit.

“She’s probably going to find out anyway but leaving this place with a little goodwill would go a long way.” Emma offered tentatively. Now that her exasperation had ebbed she remembered that she was talking to a magical super predator that had not ruled out the possibility of Emma being on the menu.

Maleficent sighed.

“Fine.”

“Excellent.” Emma clapped her hands once and smiled brightly. “We’ll grab the rest of whatever and meat you back here. Half an hour enough time.”

“Plenty.” Mal didn’t look at them as they turned to go.

She froze when a very small hand tentatively gripped her fingers. She looked down at Henry.

“You okay?”

Mal blinked at him.

A million responses crowded in her head and she was disheartened when the honest one slipped free.

“No.”

“Oh.” Henry was still a moment, his thumb rubbing against her knuckles in the way Maleficent had seen him to do Regina. He sniffled again. “Can I help?”

Mal blinked again. Several times. She looked sharply away from him when her eyes suddenly stung.

“Go and get the groceries. That will help.”

“Okay.” Henry squeezed her fingers once more and then let Emma lead him away.

Maleficent let loose a slow sigh and turned her head to look in the direction that Elliot and Peter had disappeared in. She inhaled a deep breath and held it for a long moment, trying to slow her heart.

Perhaps she was wrong.

Mal gusted out a shivering exhale and shook her head.

No.

Elliot, a sentient bull dragon. One capable of speech, he had chosen his own name, bonded with a human and had even managed to take on human form. That last trait was rare. Rarer than rare.

So rare, in fact, that only one family line possessed it.

Maleficent’s.

She shivered when she realised how close she had come. Not just to killing another dragon, to slaying another of her own kind as callously as if she were still a mindless beast, but to killing one of her own.

Elliot.

A memory a thousand years old finally solidified into place and she remembered. She remembered the cave and the hulking dead form of her mother. She remembered the cowering little kittling under the shade of a dead wing, trying to huddle closer to the warmth of a mother that no longer lived. Searching for the sound of a heart that no longer beat.

Big red and blue eyes looking up at her in mortal terror, certain that she had been about to kill him. This alien purple beast that garbled sounds he could not yet understand and was SO much larger than he could only be a monster. She could only be there to eat him.

Red and blue eyes.

Elliot.

Elliot her brother.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies if mistakes but the letters are beginning to blur together now.


End file.
